


A Spark Neglected

by redaurorarora



Series: A Mighty Fire [1]
Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: BAMF!Charles, Bamf!Erik, Bromance, Could be romance if you squint I think, Erik taking charge, Friendship, Gen, I really don't know what other tags to add
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-10
Updated: 2012-06-18
Packaged: 2017-11-05 03:16:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 25,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/401857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redaurorarora/pseuds/redaurorarora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik makes a mistake that lands Charles in Shaw's hands. As Erik and the others rush to try to get him back and stop Shaw from starting his war, Shaw manages to awaken something in Charles that may be more than anyone bargained for...something that calls itself Onslaught.</p><p>Takes place after Russia and before Cuba then plays out the rest of the movie.  This is my attempt to combine the comics with the movies.  It was posted in July on ff.net with one sequel finished and 2 more in the works if my brain will cooperate.</p><p>For those who are unaware, Onslaught (as described by Marvel's wiki), is "Magneto’s negative emotions merged with Xavier’s suppressed urges, forming a powerful, dormant psionic entity - the self-dubbed Onslaught." He's a psychic entity trapped within Charles' mind...until he becomes a lot less trapped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Like the summary said, this is my humble attempt to merge the comics and movies to a degree, mostly to include a comic character I like. I tried to take elements from both. This is present more in the sequel than in this one I think, but I put forth effort, so there's that. Most of my comic knowledge comes from Marvel's wiki (though I do have some of the Onslaught series comics), so forgive me if some of the comic-based stuff is a bit off. It's unbeta-ed aside from me reading it over and over and over. Sorry for any errors!
> 
> For timeline purposes, it takes place after Charles and Erik get back from Russia, so they're at the mansion. Moira is minimal, which makes me sad because I like her, but she didn't fit into the little universe I'm creating very well.
> 
> And, as I'm sure everyone guessed, I don't actually own anything Marvel, so consider it disclaimed.

Erik and Raven stood in the kitchen of the mansion, where Erik had been caught sneaking out courtesy of the girl's desire for an evening snack.

"Erik, you can't go alone."

"I'm a grown man, Raven. I'll go wherever I please."

"Charles won't like it."

"Well Charles isn't here, is he?"

Raven glared. "He'll be back soon enough. He just went to get some supplies."

"Look, my contact says that Shaw is going after something and it's close enough for me to get there. If Shaw wants something, it's generally best to make sure he doesn't get it. It's too close for me not to go. It's not as if we have the time to mobilize a team. The CIA can't help us. I can't let an opportunity pass by where I can stop him. "

"You mean get revenge,” she scoffed.

Erik gave her a withering look. "I'm going and none of you _children_ are coming with me."

"I thought we were a team," she said, brushing off his attempt to get a rise out of her.

"Well sometimes it's better for me to work alone. I'll stop you from coming with me if you try."

With that, Erik marched out the door, leaving Raven standing in the kitchen with her arms crossed angrily over her chest. 

* * *

Forty-five minutes later, after breaking every speed limit in one of Charles' fastest cars, Erik sat in the lobby of an office building. It was closed for the night, all the workers probably asleep in their comfy homes.

What Shaw could want here he didn't know, but his informer had never given him bad intel before. There was definitely something here. His best guess was that some of the papers in the office had information Shaw needed.

He absently flipped the old Nazi coin over his fingers. He was so caught up in his thoughts, waiting for the malice that came with Shaw's presence, that he didn't notice the more benign presence until it was sitting right next to him. He continued watching the coin flip over his fingers.

"You shouldn't have done this, Erik. How many times must I tell you you're not alone?"

"You certainly got here fast to prove that, Charles."

The telepath leaned forward on the bench. "I tend to hurry when Raven is screaming in my mind. She can cause quite a headache when she doesn't get her way."

Erik finally looked up, meeting his friend's blue eyes for the first time.

"You shouldn't be here. Shaw is dangerous."

"All the more reason for us to face him together. Besides, if you didn't want me here, why did you tell Raven where you were going? You didn't seriously think she wouldn't tell me."

Erik gave a huff. "Fine. I suppose I may have been hoping someone would come."

The corners of Charles' mouth twitched upward at the admission, but he didn't comment on it further, instead turning to the matter at hand.

"You realize this might be a trap."

"Then it's a good thing I have a telepath with me, isn't it."

Charles watched as Erik continued to move the coin. "So, what's the plan?"

"Now that you're here, I guess it's to do that freezing trick you do and go from there."

"Just out of curiosity, what was your plan before I came? From what I've heard, projectiles can do nothing to harm him. Did you intend to stare at him maliciously until he died of terror or perhaps just brood in his general direction?"

Erik covered his smile with a tone of mock offense. "I was going to wing it. Plans don't necessarily suit me all the time."

"That explains your chess strategy."

Their banter was silenced when the poof of Azazel's teleport was heard. They stood up with lightning speed and whipped around. Shaw stood behind them with the demon-like mutant. The odd looking helmet on his head didn't hide his broad smile as he saw the two younger men in front of him. Shaw gave a quick nod to Azazel, who teleported out before Charles could get a hand to his temple to control him. Shaw then turned to face them.

"Erik, how nice to see you! And you brought a friend! The telepath I've been hearing about, right? Aren't you going to introduce us?"

Erik’s lips formed a tight line. He spoke without breaking eye contact with the man he'd hunted for so long. "Charles, immobilize him."

"I'm trying." Charles had a hand to his temple, brow furrowed in intense concentration that quickly turned to confusion. "Something's wrong. I- This has never happened before without another telepath around!"

Shaw stepped forward, tapping his helmet. "Do you like it? I had it made especially to deal with people like you. If Erik is going to be rude, then I suppose I'll have to take care of the formalities. My name is Sebastian Shaw. I believe you must be Charles Xavier. I can't say that I've heard a lot about you. You're a hard man to pin down. But I've heard enough. I'm sure you've heard about me." He gave a proud smile. 

Charles lowered his hand from his temple, a look of loathing on his face.

"Yes, I've heard enough about you as well."

"Excellent!" With that, he shifted his attention back to Erik.

"What are you doing here, mein schüler? Do you intend to exact your revenge on me? Or would you like to finally join my ranks as a god and help me destroy the insects?"

"I'll never join you Shaw," Erik spat.

"So you're here to kill me then. That's gone so well for you in the past."

Erik snarled at the man, but before he could come up with his rebuttal, Charles interrupted.

"Why is it that you're here? There's hardly anything of worth that you could need for your plans. I know. I've seen them."

"Indeed you have. Quite impressive, breaking Emma like that. You two make a surprisingly good team. Actually, what I'm here for isn't a thing but rather a person."

Erik frowned. "Little late to be searching for someone to kidnap, isn't it? My information said-"

Shaw put on a look of clearly fabricated disappointment. "Oh Erik, where do you think your informer got that information?"

Erik froze, expression wavering for the first time, as Charles tensed.

"This is a trap."

"The telepath catches on fast even without the use of his powers! Well done! Best way to lure out someone who's well hidden is to set an ingenious trap."

Erik quickly recovered, confidence flitting across his face once more. "You sent me information. You knew I'd come. I wouldn't call it ingenious."

"It still got you both here, didn't it?"

"Yes, you got me here. Congratulations. Why would you even want me? You know I won't join you. Haven't you 'trained' me enough?"

Shaw let out a laugh. "My dearest Erik," he said with a smile, "who ever said I was here for you?" Shaw let his eyes slide slightly to Erik's left. Erik followed the man's gaze...straight to a wide-eyed Charles.

"No…" Erik's strangled whisper betrayed his carefully constructed mask of neutrality.

"As I was saying, the best way to draw out a person who is well hidden is to make him think his reckless, vengeance-blinded friend is in danger."

"NO!" Erik shot any metal he could sense in room at Shaw, who absorbed it effortlessly. In one quick motion, Shaw moved to Erik and tossed him to the side. He hit the wall with enough force to leave him dazed, blinking back black dots as they danced before his eyes. He lay on his side, groaning and trying to catch his breath. Shaw turned his attention to Charles as soon as Erik hit the wall.

Charles had put his hand back up to his temple in a futile attempt to get through the helmet. He backed up on equal pace with Shaw's strides towards him until his back hit the opposite wall. Shaw closed the distance between them in a two steps. Charles dropped his hand from his temple once more, knowing it was a pointless effort, and raised his chin in defiance.

"What do you want from me?"

"After your little excursion to Russia, I'm short a telepath. I'd like to give you a job interview."

"I'll never work with you," Charles spat.

"We'll see about that," Shaw said as he put a single finger to Charles' temple, his other arm jammed across the telepath’s chest trapping him against the wall. Charles flinched away, struggling in vain against Shaw's hold.

Erik desperately tried to regain his footing as the tip of Shaw's finger glowed dimly against Charles' head, releasing a small burst of energy. He stared in horror as Charles' eyes slipped shut and his struggles ceased. Shaw grabbed Charles roughly around the waist as the telepath slumped, letting Charles' arms and head swing freely near his knees like a puppet with its strings cut. Now in possession of his prize, Shaw turned to Erik, who had regained enough of his senses to stand using the wall as support.

"I thought you played chess." 

Erik paused, taken off guard and unable to hide the confusion from his face. “What?”

"It's just that you forgot the cardinal rule." Shaw smiled maliciously and glanced down at the unconscious telepath in his grasp then back to Erik. "Always protect your king."

Erik began running at Shaw. Before he could get there, Azazel reappeared, putting a hand on Shaw's shoulder. With a wave and a short "Ta!", Shaw disappeared with the other mutant, taking Charles with him. Erik slid to his knees where the men had been standing moments before, letting out a primal yell. The yell of a man who has lost his best friend to his greatest enemy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erik faces the rest of the inhabitants of Westchester and Charles learns a little bit more about Shaw's plans for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Has a bit of torture, but I don't think it's too terribly serious.

Erik burst back into the mansion, sending the door slamming into the wall behind it. Every metallic component in the doors and windows in the mansion rattled. The children (though they weren't really children as Erik had pointed out to Charles in the ruins of the CIA facility…he'd fallen into the habit of referring to them as such thanks to the telepath) started where they stood in the kitchen at the noise when he stalked in. Relief crossed Raven's face.

"Erik! You're okay! What-"

"Shaw has Charles."

The girl’s relief shifted to horror in a split second, mirrored by the three boys gathered behind her. All of them began talking at once.

"What-" "How-" "Why-"

Erik wondered briefly how Charles dealt with it all the chaos that must be present in his head with so many people buzzing around in it. His chest tightened at the thought of his friend coupled with the knowledge that Shaw had him. He held up his hand. The children silenced.

"Since you're all down here, I have no doubt Raven has told you where I went and why." Erik leaned on the counter, not wanting to relive what had just happened, but knowing he had to explain. With a deep breath, he composed himself and continued. "It was a trap. Shaw knew I would come and he knew Charles would follow me. He had a helmet that kept Charles from affecting him. He incapacitated me and knocked Charles out while I was down. He and Azazel disappeared before I could stop him."

The younger mutants stood silent in varying states of shock. Raven's expression teetered between anger and fear before settling on anger. She stalked up to Erik, inches from his face.

"This is your fault! I told you we're a team! If we'd all been there-"

"Then he would have gone through all of us, gotten Charles anyway, and possibly left you injured, which would only cause Charles to worry more. Trust me, the only person Charles needs to be worried about right now is Charles. Besides, I think you're the one who told him where I was! Maybe if you'd kept your concerns to yourself, he wouldn't be in this situation!"

Raven recoiled as if he'd slapped her. She glared at the man, grinding her teeth, until her features started shifting from anger to something else. Without another word, she stormed from the room.

Hank shot a pointed look to Erik (as pointed a look as the scientist could muster) then followed after her. Those in the kitchen could vaguely hear Hank shouting for Raven to wait from down the hall before a door slammed.

Erik was breathing heavily from his pent-up emotions. Sean and Alex both looked awkwardly between him and each other. Leaning with both hands on the counter, Erik raised his glare to meet the boys.

"What are you looking at?" he growled, low and dangerous. Anyone with any sense would have scuttled from the room without a word. Sean, it seemed, prided himself on having no sense. He walked around the counter, moving closer to Erik while still maintaining a safe distance.

"That was a low blow, man. Blame isn't going to do anything for the professor. We need to figure out how to save him."

Erik continued to glare before his features softened and he let out a sigh. Maybe Sean had more sense than he let on. Nothing like having a teenager be the one to slap sense into you.

"You're right. Oddly."

"I guess the professor is rubbing off on me. On all of us."

"I didn't mean for…this shouldn't have happened. He shouldn't have been there. I shouldn't have gone. It was so clearly a trap! This is all my fault!" His voice escalated as he spoke, culminating in a yell that left all the metal in the room vibrating.

Alex walked around the counter to join Sean. "You pushed him," he said jerking a thumb at Sean, "off a satellite dish without a shadow of a doubt that he would survive even though he’d never come close to flying before then. It could have turned out totally different if he hadn't been able to fly, but I don't think you've looked back and regretted what you did. You went into tonight that same way. It was dangerous and you had no idea how it would turn out. You pushed Sean off a satellite and it turned out fine. You went to confront Shaw and it didn’t. Every decision you make is a gamble. But you can't sit here and regret the decision you made. It won't do anyone any good. If prison taught me anything, it's that you can regret something all you want, but it won't change a damn thing. Sean is right. We should focus on what's happening now and how we can fix it."

A far more eloquent speech, Erik thought, than he’d ever expected from Alex. Great. Now teenage boys were ganging up on him using Charles-logic. When the hell did that happen?

Before he could dwell on it any longer, Hank and Raven re-entered the room. Raven's eyes showed the slightest hint that she'd been crying, but otherwise she appeared her normal self, if not more confident. The shy scientist seemed to have that effect on the shapeshifter. He trailed in behind her, the pair of them joining Alex and Sean near Erik.

Erik looked to the shapeshifter. "I apologize for what I said before Raven. I-"

"Forget it. I'm miffed but I'm pretty sure that whatever you're going to say won't make anything any better. I accept your apology though. Now, what are we going to do to get my brother back from that monster?" 

Erik looked at the figures standing in front of him. He couldn't help but smile at the determination that shone in the eyes of the four mutants. There would be plenty of time later for him to blame himself for what happened to Charles. Now, it was time to plan a rescue mission.

* * *

Charles woke with a blinding headache. After a few tries, he managed to open his eyes fully to take stock of his surroundings. He was strapped to a table by his wrists, ankles, and chest. The room was sparse, containing only the table he was lying on and the bright light above him. Straining his neck as much as he could, he found that he was in a cell with metal bars which was inside a concrete room with one door. Metal bars meant that Erik wasn't around, at least not in the immediate vicinity. His captor wouldn't be that stupid. The door opened and Sebastian Shaw walked in.

"Charles! Excellent to see you awake!"

"What did you do to Erik?"

"Don't worry," Shaw said with a Cheshire grin. "I'd never kill my greatest creation. I was there for you and you alone."

Charles allowed himself a small sigh of relief. At least he didn't have to worry about Erik. Now that that was out of the way, he pushed as much stubbornness as he could muster outward, hoping that the man standing over him would pick up on it. "I won't join you Shaw. No matter what you do to me."

"Now how can you say that without even knowing what I'm capable of?"

"I've seen what you've done."

"Right. Erik's memories. Well, that's just part of my rather extensive arsenal. I've had to deal with a lot of mutants. Each one required different…strategies should we say? I know ways to help you reach your potential that you can't even dream of."

Charles just stared back at Shaw. Perhaps his earlier proposed strategy of staring maliciously at him would make him die of terror. It didn't work. 

"So, what, you're going to beat me until I do what you want?"

"Beat you? Oh no no no. Your power is mental not physical and should be trained as such. You forget…I had a telepath too. I know how to project my thoughts to you."

Without warning, Charles was assaulted with images of pain and suffering. He shut his eyes tightly and, on instinct, erected every mental barrier he could. Shaw looked down.

"Very good!" He sounded truly impressed. It was frightening.

"Now, let's see how you do with this."

Shaw put his hands on both sides of Charles' face. Charles barely had time to look confused before his head erupted in the worst pain he'd ever felt in his relatively short life. Soon the pain was accompanied by the images he'd blocked before. It felt like Cerebro increased tenfold. He tried to rebuild his mental barriers but the pain had shattered them beyond hope. The images were so strong he couldn't have blocked them anyway. They weren't just of mutants Shaw had tortured. He also felt every mutant within hundreds of miles of him, if not more. He could feel their pain as they were rejected by humanity. He felt every bit of suffering, all their fear and abandonment, every little twinge of emotion as they hid themselves from society. He scrabbled to find some semblance of positive emotion but it was like they were being blocked by Shaw's projections. 

Just when he thought he couldn't take it anymore, it stopped. Charles felt his body go slack. His throat was raw from a scream he hadn't known he'd been releasing. He was panting as he lifted his exhausted eyes to Shaw.

"What…the hell…did you do to me?" he managed to gasp out between pants.

"Did you like it? I've been practicing. You see, my power is energy-based. I took that energy and magnified your abilities with it. With your powers amplified, you can't block the images I project. You have so much potential power within you. I can tell." The last bit Shaw spoke as if he were encouraging a child.

"You're using my powers against me," Charles whispered in dismay.

"For the greater good."

"Good? None of those things you showed me were good."

"Oh, Charles. So naïve. You have no idea the power you possess. I am going to show it to you. Then I'm going to show you how much better you are than those humans you insist on protecting. You need to see that we are the dominant species. You are going to join me. And you are going to do it willingly. I will break you down and rebuild you into something far better than you ever imagined you could be."

Charles could no longer hide the fear and horror from his face. Before he could formulate an answer, Shaw had his hands back on Charles' head and the pain began once again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erik and the others come up with a plan and Shaw finds what he's looking for.

Charles returned to consciousness once more. He had no idea how long he had been strapped to the table. It had been a number of days. It felt like months and the only thing that kept him from convincing himself it had been was the fact that Shaw had a deadline to meet with the missiles in Cuba.

Hours passed in the same endless cycle: he woke up, Shaw came in, Shaw showed him horrific images of pain and torture and power, he passed out. Everything was starting to blur together. He couldn't separate reality from what Shaw was showing him. He felt like he was losing himself. And that truly terrified him.

Like clockwork, Shaw walked in.

"Ready for another round?"

Charles was far too exhausted to respond.

"Not nearly as cheeky as you were before. Ready to join up?"

Charles just blinked back barely having the energy to send a glare at the man.

"Progress. Let's get started then." Shaw put his hands to Charles' head. As they days had passed, the images had shifted, focusing more and more on the power mutants gained from Shaw's influence and their own confidence rather than their pain and torture, though those themes were still clearly evident. Shaw was adding his own monologue to the images as well, trying to turn Charles now that he'd worn him down with the images alone.

It was quite an effective strategy, weakening a person to a point then trying to fill that person's head with new ideas. Charles wondered how often it had worked before and how long it took those unfortunate souls to give in. Shaw's voice echoed in his head along with the never-ending images of mutants: lonely, abandoned, scared, persecuted, tortured and…powerful.

"Do you feel them Charles? All those mutants all over the world? Do you feel their pain? Their fear? Their desire to be accepted knowing that most of them won't be? We are the next step. We shouldn't be hiding. We shouldn't be the ones who are afraid. The humans are. Don't you see the potential? I can show our brothers and sisters how to be the best that they can be. I can make sure we take our place as the dominant species. Do you see the little girl, crying because her parents don't love her? The teenage boy being bullied for being different? The young man, beaten because he's like us? The woman left to an insane asylum because nobody is willing to help her?"

Shaw pulled up countless mutants. The images blurred with images of humans hunting, killing one another, ignoring progress and persecuting difference. Charles was lost in an ocean of other people's emotions, drowning, not able to find himself to stay at the surface. Shaw's voice boomed through his head again.

"You can help save all of them from that pain."

The images flashed faster. Charles could feel himself slipping under the waves of other mutants. Something began building in his chest…something that felt vaguely familiar. Anger churned around him until it finally burst to the surface.

"STOP IT!"

Shaw jumped at the force of the shout that came from the telepath. He felt his hands fly away from Charles' head as if thrown by a physical force. Surprised, he looked down to see Charles' eyes shining fiery orange behind their usual blue just before the boy's body went lax and he passed out. Shaw smiled.

"Well, there's some progress."

* * *

"I think we've found something."

Moira McTaggert walked in holding a file and a map. Erik hadn't been happy with including the CIA agent in the search for Charles. But after almost two days of dead ends, Raven had finally convinced him that they needed the help. After all, they didn't have to ask the CIA. They just had to ask Moira.

Moira had, after all, managed to track Shaw and his team down once, albeit by accident. She was their best option within the CIA, clearly holding affection for Charles. She would want to help and she would keep their secrets as she had in the past. The agency would have more resources and better ability to track multiple avenues of movement than the five mutants. Raven's arguments had finally gotten Erik to grudgingly agree.

Moira threw the file down on the table in front of the mutants then spread the map out.

"It's impossible to track the teleporter, but Angel was caught by our surveillance when she went to pick something up at her apartment. We followed her from there. They're in an old house in New Hampshire." She pointed to a red dot on the map.

Erik, always skeptical of information presented to him (particularly after the events days before), frowned. "And what makes you so sure that they're keeping Charles there?"

"I thought you might ask that. It has a bunker under it. It was supposed to be a bomb shelter, but the house was abandoned a few months ago. Shaw could easily have converted it to suit his own purposes. We were able to obtain blueprints. The underground bunker looks to be concrete, but it's actually lined with some type of metal."

The pieces connected in Erik's head. "Like the helmet Shaw had…"

Moira shrugged. "I couldn't say, but probably. It would keep Charles from using his telepathy."

Everyone paused. The younger mutants looked to Erik, their de facto leader. After a long hesitation, Erik made his decision. "Okay. How do we get there?"

Hank spoke up. "The jet I've been working on would get us there fastest. The area around the house appears to be isolated. We could land far enough away that nobody would see us."

"From there, we sneak into the house, get down to the bunker, and get Charles," said Alex, though he and the others knew it would be far more difficult than it sounded.

Moira spread out the blueprints and the mutants gathered around her. "The easiest entrance is this side door," she said, pointing at a spot in the blueprint. She slid her finger across to the paper showing them a path. "You'll have to get down this hallway. The only problem is that you also have to go through the main living room. It's the most open you'll be. There's no way around it. The entrance to the bunker is just on the other side of it. The only other way to get there takes you through a significant portion of the house. It'll take longer than I suspect you'd like to be there."

"With Shaw around, we need to be in that bunker and out with Charles as quickly as possible." Erik stood from his position hunched over the blueprint. "Alright. Hank will pilot us to the site. From there, you all will wait while I go in-"

"No." Erik glared at the interruption but Raven stood with a stubbornness rivaling her brother's. "Last time, you tried to go face Shaw by yourself and look how it turned out. We all go in. If you do end up getting caught or if Charles is…in bad shape…you'll need backup. You're not going alone, right?" She looked to the boys who all nodded determinedly. Erik didn't know if she had purposefully echoed the words Charles had used to convince him to let go of the sub or if the surrogate siblings just thought along the same lines. But she was right. If he did get caught getting Charles out, it would do no one any good. There were more people depending on him than just himself now.

He still scowled. "Fine. We all go in, we follow the path Moira has shown us, we get Charles, and we get out of there. No dawdling, no revenge. Not yet. When can we leave?" He looked to Hank.

"The jet can be ready to go in two hours."

Erik smiled. "Alright then. Let's go get our telepath back."

* * *

Charles was more exhausted than he'd felt upon his previous awakenings. He didn't know how much longer he could keep it up. Then he remembered what had happened during his last 'session'. A presence had come up…one that he hadn't felt in a very long time...one that petrified him. Shaw made his entrance.

"We made excellent progress last time, Charles! I'm very pleased."

"Shaw, you have no idea what you're doing-"

"Oh, Charles, don't be that way. You have far more potential than even I imagined. I think we're on the edge of a breakthrough. And I think I know exactly what will get you there. Why don't we try someone a little more familiar this time? Your friend Erik perhaps?"

Horror filled Charles. "No…" It was weak and tired. Shaw smiled.

"Yes, I think it'll do you good to see the pain Erik has gone through and how much stronger it made him."

"No…please don't…you don't know what this will do-"

Shaw ignored Charles' pleas, grabbing the man's head. Images assaulted Charles once again. Charles watched the entirety of Erik's time with Shaw in a matter of minutes (or it could have hours…he didn't know). It began with a young Erik standing before Shaw. A woman was brought in between two soldiers. Charles knew what was coming but could do nothing as Erik failed to move the coin. The woman was shot and Erik's power was unleashed. He watched and felt every bit of pain Erik had experienced thereafter through the tortures Shaw inflicted. He felt the power Erik gained from it, the man who destroyed a ship with its anchor…the man who moved the satellite dish after finding serenity in rage.

Images of Erik's torture continued to flash before him, now including the adult Erik as he mercilessly hunted down and killed those who had made him suffer. Shaw's voice resounded in his head.

"You know he'll leave you. Because in the end, he's mine, my creation. He's accepted that he's far too powerful to be held back by your pitiful humans. The only way you will be able to stop him is if you are stronger than he is. Accept your power and you will see how much more you are than the barbarians. If you don't, your love for them will drive him away, then the humans will hunt you down and kill you all. You're going to lose him and everyone you care about unless you let go and accept your power!"

Charles felt as everything began to converge in his mind: his amplified powers, the memories he had from Erik, the visions put there by Shaw, the energy being forced into his head, all coalescing into something that he already knew was present within him. He recognized what was coming, but it was far too late to stop it.

Shaw upped his energy output, amplifying Charles' powers as much as he could. Charles let out a scream that tensed his whole body. Just when Shaw didn't think he could hold it any longer, everything stopped. Shaw's hands once again shot away from the telepath's head, more controlled than before. There was an unnatural light in the room. Shaw looked down to find fire in his patient's eyes once more. This time there were no signs that it would recede. The telepath sat giving Shaw a passive stare. There was the slightest threat behind his eyes as well. Shaw freed the man from his restraints, allowing him to sit up.

"I told you you could be great."

Charles continued to look at Shaw, tilting his head the slightest bit as if he were trying to look into the man's soul. Shaw stood unfazed.

"Do you see now? Are you ready to join our cause?"

The fiery eyes moved to meet Shaw's. "He who is unable to live in society must be either a beast or a god."

"Aristotle. Very nice. And which are you?"

The man sitting before Shaw gave a small smile. "I am not a beast."

Shaw let a broad smile cross his face and stood back to admire his new creation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going out of town and will only have sporadic Internet, but I'll try to update when I can :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long! I was out of town and had to make more changes than I thought I did when I got back.

It was early afternoon by the time they were in the jet and on their way to New Hampshire. Moira had, of course, wanted to come with them. Erik had refused. He was already concerned with keeping the children safe, not to mention a powerless human. She'd done her job. Now it was their turn.

An uneventful and unnaturally quiet trip later, they landed. Everyone's nerves were on edge as they made their way through the surrounding wooded area towards the mansion. The young mutants had never actively gone into a dangerous situation, though they'd faced Shaw before at the CIA facility. Likewise, Erik had never gone into a dangerous situation with anyone other than himself to worry about, nor had he faced said situation without the express purpose of getting information and/or killing. Sure, he'd kill Shaw if given the opportunity. He wasn't very well going to let the man escape if it was within his power to stop him. But that was his secondary mission in this case, something which was new and a bit frightening. Not since the murder of his mother had Erik put someone else's well-being above his drive to seek revenge.

The house was large. Not as large as Charles' mansion, but if Erik hadn't had that as a benchmark he would have been impressed by the manor standing before them. They met with surprisingly little resistance upon entering. Erik and Raven led with Hank in the middle and Alex and Sean bringing up the rear. Bringing the whole group was risky, but not knowing what they were to face, it was better safe than sorry. Raven was a decent fighter, Hank could probably engineer a way out of any cage with a lighter, a spoon, and some lent, Sean could incapacitate whole groups of combatants, and Alex could blast his way out of almost anything. Erik glanced back before moving down a long hallway. While the children were clearly relieved not to have met anyone, Erik became more and more tense. There should be someone…they should have run into something. He had a bad feeling, but he couldn't turn back now…not so close to Charles.

"Maybe they aren't here..." Sean suggested in a whisper.

"Or maybe this is a trap," Alex sneered back. Charles had noted early on the boy's tendency to lash out when he was nervous, probably a defense mechanism picked up during his time in prison. Apparently, that habit hadn't been broken yet.

They made it to their last obstacle, the large living room Moira had warned them about, before Erik's concerns became a reality. They were so close to their goal that they could almost see the door leading to where Charles must be. Erik heard Raven release an unsteady breath as they started their trek from the doorway to their goal. The room was, in fact, large. Large enough to contain two couches, a desk with a massive chair, and bookcases along the walls. The chair, Erik noted, was in an odd position, facing away from them in a way that had to be purposeful. He stopped short, causing the children to halt behind him. As if taking their halt as a signal, the chair turned around, in true villain fashion, to reveal Shaw. The children behind Erik tensed while Erik himself took a barely noticeable breath to calm his instinct to attack. Shaw stood, same broad smile plastered across his face as he'd had in the office building when he'd taken Charles.

"Hello again, Erik! I've been expecting you. You keep bringing more and more people to meet me." 

Erik showed no outward signs of disturbance, but felt out for any metal he could weaponize or at least use as a distraction. After all, using metal as a weapon had turned out less than ideally last time he'd tried it against Shaw.

"You knew we were coming," he growled.

"Of course I did," Shaw said as he walked around the desk. "Didn't you think it was a little convenient that Angel decided to return home just days after your friend went missing? Really, Erik, it is _far ___too easy to manipulate you."

Erik bristled but remained silent as Shaw continued.

"Also, you weren't counting on my new friend. He was gracious enough to inform us as soon as your plane arrived. Very nice design by the way," Shaw complimented, turning his attention to Hank. "You're a very talented young man. I'd love to work more with you in the future." 

Hank suppressed a shudder and glared back. "I think I'd rather not."

Shaw laughed outright. "Well, well, someone's got spunk. Your little professor did too, when I first got my hands on him."

"Enough!" Erik snapped, pulling Shaw's gaze back to him. "Where is Charles?"

"Hmm…" Shaw hummed, hand on his chin as he tapped his lips with an overdramatic expression of thoughtfulness. "I'm afraid Charles isn't around…but I do think you'd like very much to meet my new friend."

In a flash, Azazel, Riptide, and Angel appeared beside him. But they weren't alone. There was a fourth figure with them. A fourth figure that looked disturbingly like Charles Xavier. It wasn't the Charles Xavier they knew though. He was dressed the same, yes, but this man had fire in his eyes and…it was indescribable, but the best way Erik could wrap his mind around it was that the telepath had an aura around him, the same color that shone in his eyes. It was almost like he was glowing...glowing with immense power. He stood with the Hellfire Club like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Erik stood open-mouthed, taken completely off guard. Of all the scenarios he had imagined walking into, this was most certainly not one of them.

"Charles…what has he done to you?" It came out as an awed whisper. The children stood terrified behind Erik. They were now confronted not only with the man they knew had tortured Erik (and who knows how many others) as a child, but also their leader, who had seemingly switched sides and looked nothing like the man they were accustomed to.

Erik steeled himself, trying to shake off the shock of Charles' transformation. He turned his wrath to Shaw. "What did you do to him?!"

"Exactly what I did to you Erik. I helped him unleash his potential. As it turns out, his potential was much greater than yours." Erik's eyes narrowed while Shaw's smile widened. "I should thank you. It was his memories of you and my projecting your training that finally broke him. I have to say, you've been far more useful than even I thought you would be. Without you, I never would have been able to get my hands on him, nor would I have been nearly as successful in training him."

Despite knowing that Shaw was trying to manipulate him, Erik still couldn't defend himself from the impact of the words. His guilt returned in full force. He stood frozen, unable to respond with anything but the mask of anger he put on to cover the devastation he felt.

"Charles…" Raven whispered with a mixture of pleading and fear. Her eyes hadn't left her brother.

The man in question had been looking at the group as a whole with both indifference and malice, which was possible despite the apparent contradiction. At Raven's whisper, his eyes snapped to her. She gasped and took a step back at his penetrating stare. The telepath took the opportunity to speak for the first time since entering the room.

"Charles is hidden away." His voice sounded painfully the same as it always had, yet it seemed to come from everywhere at once. It wasn't overwhelming. Just powerful. "You should not refer to me by his name. I am far more than he could ever hope to be. He knew of my existence, but he feared me. When he referenced me, he used only one word. I am Onslaught."

The air left Raven's lungs so fast they almost seemed to collapse. Hank, Sean, and Alex were torn between reaching out to support her and keeping their full attention on the Hellfire Club. Raven's expression turned from fear to devastation. Charles, or rather Onslaught, smirked at her reaction.

"Precisely."

Raven desperately turned to the others. "We need to get out of here! Right now!"

Sean whipped his head back and forth from Charles to Raven. "But what about the Professor?"

"I don't know, but we can't stop him like this! We have to get out of here!"

Riptide, Azazel and Angel stepped forward, leaving Shaw standing next to Charles. Erik snapped back to attention at the imminent threat. On impulse, he picked the metal out in the room, throwing it in the direction of the enemy. His impulse also carefully avoided his friend.

Before the projectiles could get to them, Charles drew up his hand, mimicking Erik. To everyone but apparently the telepath's surprise, the metal stopped in midair. It hovered for a moment before shooting back in the direction it had come. Erik was so shocked he barely had time to stop the projectiles rocketing towards at them. He stood, arm outstretched in symmetry with Charles, straining under the force with which the other man was pushing.

"How in the hell is he doing that?" Alex yelled in a panic. Erik was too focused on keeping the metal from killing them to answer. Not that he could have anyway. He winced and let out an involuntary grunt at the effort it was taking to keep the metal back.

Charles, on the other hand, looked almost relaxed. With the effort he appeared to be exerting, he could have been taking a leisurely stroll in the park. Charles dropped his hand. The metal fell to the ground so quickly that Erik stumbled forward a couple of steps as the resistance he was pushing against disappeared. Shaw applauded.

"This is so much better than I ever hoped for!" he exclaimed with a laugh.

Before the enemy could regroup, Erik recovered and pushed the children out the door they'd come through. The other mutants were scrambling to stop their escape. Charles stood rooted to the spot he'd been in since Azazel teleported into the room. Erik's eyes met with Charles' fiery ones as the telepath stared serenely back at him. Reluctantly, he waved his hand, slamming and locking the door, effectively cutting off the Hellfire Club and the man he'd come to rescue.

* * *

The group ran back to the plane in full retreat.

"What the hell was that?" Alex yelled as they ran.

"Just get back to the plane!" Raven yelled back, then looked towards Erik. "Why aren't they chasing us? They have a teleporter for heaven's sake!"

"Do you think Professor Xavier is stopping them?" 

Sean had so much hope in his voice. Erik hated to quash it. He did anyway. "No. Shaw is letting us go to toy with us. He's unstoppable now. He just wanted to see our reactions."

"But why?"

"Because he always shows us our failures before he punishes us." He felt like a child again, fearing the retribution that came after not performing well on one of Shaw's tasks.

They had made it to the jet. Hank moved towards the pilot seat. Raven put both hands against the wall and kept her head down, panting from the run while still trying to hold back tears. Erik paced a couple of times as the jet began warming up for take off. Without warning, he ripped one of the metal seat buckles loose and hurled it at the wall. The impact left an impressive dent. Then he dropped to a seat, head in his hands. The others remained quiet, taking seats themselves. The plane took off, leaving far more than New Hampshire behind them.

After twenty minutes of silence, Alex looked around at his comrades. All four sat dejected in their seats, staring blankly at the floor, or in Hank's case out the windshield. Raven had tear tracks running down her cheeks, though she wasn't crying at the moment. Erik still had his head in his hands.

"He just made a mistake."

Raven and Sean looked at Alex, startled by a break in the silence. Erik pulled his head up.

"What?" The German was as confused as the others as they faced Alex.

"Shaw just made a mistake. He let us go. He thinks it's going to mess with our heads and, sure, it was a…a big blow. But he also gave up the element of surprise."

Erik's face hadn't lost the look of despondency. "I don't see how it makes a difference. We have no idea what to expect from Charles…Onslaught…whatever that was."

"No, we don't, but at least we know he's in the game. That's more than we knew before. Shaw expects us to curl up in a corner and cry because of what he's done to the Professor, but now we can be prepared the next time we face him."

"That's right," Sean said, face a little brighter. "We still have a few days before Cuba. We can get ready. And maybe we can figure out how to get the Professor back."

"It won't be easy," Alex picked up with a shrug. "But at least we aren't dead."

It was the second time in a matter of days that Alex and Sean had shown more sense than Erik attributed to them. It was getting to be a habit. He settled his head on his folded hands, contemplative and far less dejected than before. Maybe there was hope to be had yet.


	5. Chapter 5

The mutants found themselves sitting in Charles' study to regroup after their disastrous rescue attempt. They said they'd picked the room for its size and coziness. In reality, they wanted to be in a place where they could feel the absent telepath's lingering presence.

"Okay, explain what…that…was." Erik still couldn't bring himself to say either Charles or Onslaught's name. He turned to Raven, remembering her reaction back in New Hampshire. "You knew what he was talking about when he said he was Onslaught."

"Y- Yeah." As confident as Raven could be, at present she was just a girl who had lost her older brother. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath to calm herself. "The only time I've ever seen Charles scared was when he was a teenager a few years after he'd adopted me. He'd been trying to see how far his powers would go, experimenting and all that. It had started out innocent enough and fairly harmless, but I'd been getting worried. He wasn't acting like himself. He was using his powers to get his own way. Convincing teachers he'd turned in homework when he hadn't, stuff like that. I was hoping it was just a phase, but I was young. I didn't really know what was going on. Then it started escalating. A boy threatened him one day for some reason or another. At recess, Charles told the school bully to beat up the other kid. The bully knocked the kid around, but didn't do serious harm. Two days later, Charles got the bully to beat up another kid. There was no reason. He just sat there and watched while the kid he was controlling beat the other one unconscious. He laughed."

The last two words had obvious disgust behind them. Refusing to meet anyone's shocked gazes, she took another breath to steady her wavering voice. "I asked him why he did it. He said just because. Because he could. He wanted to see how far he could push people…if they would fight back against him or if he could really make them do whatever he wanted."

"The Professor said that?" Hank blanched at the idea.

"He wasn't 'the Professor' yet. He was just a teenage boy who realized he had the power to get his way. That night, he came to me terrified. He said he'd had a dream, but it wasn't a dream. A presence had been there. A part of him that was hidden away but growing...coming closer to the surface. It told him he was finally on the right path. 'If you have the ability to make people do what suits you, why shouldn't you use it?' and all that. It was power hungry. It was like…like everything bad he'd ever wanted to do was piled up into one being. He said it was like an onslaught of malice within him."

Erik gave a minute wince at the phrase. "Onslaught. That's where it came from. Shaw must have pushed him until that onslaught finally manifested itself."

"He was truly terrified at the power within him and what he might do. I'll always remember that night. Usually when I had a nightmare or if I couldn't sleep, I would go curl up in his bed. That was the first and only night he curled up in mine. It was the night he decided he would never try to push himself further than necessary. I think that was when he became who he is today. A few times, I've wondered what would've happened if he'd made a different decision…given in to it all."

"I think we're about to find out."

Erik ignored Alex's statement. "How was he able to use my powers?"

Everyone turned to Hank. He flushed unconsciously at the attention, but his scientific mind took over with ease. "Well, the professor is the most powerful telepath known to us and Sebastian Shaw, at the very least. That would imply that he has a vast amount of psionic energy within him. Our powers have some connection to our thoughts and emotions, his more so than the rest of us due to the nature of them. Perhaps the combination of that energy and the professor's repressed negative impulses actually coalesced to create a separate entity within his mind. That aura around him could have been due to the psionic energy that helped create the other consciousness. I suppose if the Professor were pushed into submission through…whatever means Shaw used…that energy could manifest as a different persona and become dominant."

Alex gaped at Hank. "So the Professor had an evil twin in his head this whole time?"

Hank shrugged. "More or less. We know he holds himself back. It doesn't mean some part of him doesn't want to look into our minds or control people to his whims or use his telepathy for his own personal gain. It just means he's able to stop himself from doing it. Every time he stopped himself, he added to that repressed part of his mind…to Onslaught."

"That still doesn't explain why he could use my powers," Erik said roughly. He was having a hard enough time wrapping his mind around the slow realizaion that Charles was perhaps less innocent and naive than he'd always assumed. He needed to know why the telepath was suddenly able to pull metallokinesis out of his hat too.

Everyone turned to the scientist again. Hank looked contemplative, then spoke. "His powers appeared to be maximized to their full potential. Maybe he was able to use his telepathy to channel your power. He wouldn't be able to use abilities like Raven or Alex or Sean's that involve physical manifestation. Shapeshifting, energy discharge, voice modulation...those are dependent upon changes to the physical body. But he could control something like, say, magnetic fields through you."

"So I'm the lucky winner of having a power that can be channeled?"

Hank grew uncomfortable. "There may be…another reason."

"Would you care to share with us?" Erik growled in impatience after a moment of silence.

Hank spoke with hesitation. "How much time has he spent…you know…up there?" He glanced to Erik's head as he asked the question.

Erik crossed his arms over his chest, drawing into himself. "I don't see why-"

Alex let out a frustrated huff. "Just answer the damn question!"

Erik glowered before giving up with an eye roll and shrug. "I don't know. A fair amount. More than I'd like probably. He…said he knew everything about me," he finished grudgingly.

"I don't know much about his telepathy," Hank continued, "but it seems that he's spent more time with you than anyone. We know he tries to stay out of people's heads and, even then, he doesn't delve too deep unless necessary. He usually only hits one person once or twice. The only person he's been around extensively before us was Raven and he wouldn't be able to manifest her power anyway. Maybe…if he's been in someone's mind enough times, it sort of bonds them?"

"What about you three?" Erik said defensively, indicating Hank, Sean and Alex. "He's been around you as much as he's been around me!"

"No." The force with which Raven made her assertion caused Erik to jump. "You two traveled together recruiting. You spend ridiculous amounts of time together playing chess and talking and training."

"Yeah, you guys are, like, best friends." Sean said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Looking to the other mutants, Erik saw that apparently it was the most obvious thing in the world seeing as how everyone seemed to know it.

Erik sighed and resigned to the idea. "…so Charles and I have some type of bond and that allows him access to my powers? By channeling me?"

Hank shrugged and nodded. "That's my only hypothesis. I won't know for sure if he can possess other powers without running tests."

Sean looked thoughtful for a moment. "So, to sum up, Professor X has a dark side that is now dominant and much more powerful than the already powerful man we knew. Because he's bonded with Erik or whatever, he can channel Erik's power and has the potential to possess multiple other powers we don't know about besides super-sized telepathy and magnetic control rivaling our own Magneto. Said powerful telepath has teamed up with a seemingly invincible psychopath and his team that's hellbent on starting World War III. Is that about right?"

It would have been comical had it not been so accurate. They all looked to one another as the reality of the situation set in.

Sean once again broke the silence. "How can we stop that?"

Erik leaned forward after a beat. "By doing what we know how to do. We keep training. Now that we've seen at least some of what...Onslaught...can throw at us, we can prepare ourselves to defend against him. It only takes getting the upper hand once to win a fight. We hone our abilities as much as we can in the next few days, then see what happens in Cuba. Agreed?"

"Agreed," the younger mutants said in unison.

"Go get some rest. We have training in the morning." The children all gave nods and left the study, spliting off to their separate rooms.

Hours later, when Erik couldn't sleep, he somehow found himself at Charles' bedroom, where he had so often gone to play chess to calm his mind. He opened the door, but stopped before going all the way in. Closing the door quietly, he made his way back down the hall, leaving Raven's blue form curled up on the bed asleep.

* * *

"I still think we should have killed them," Riptide asserted, arms crossed over his chest. He was clearly furious at being held back from his attack, even a day later.

Shaw remained unaffected by Riptide's vehemence. "The time wasn't right. And the looks on their faces were well worth it. Let their loss sink in. They'll stew in their defeat."

"They know about our plans. They will find us in Cuba," Azazel said matter-of-factly. He didn't seem concerned, simply stated what was known.

"Yes," Shaw replied this time with a tinge of annoyance, "and we'll easily overwhelm them. They're a bunch of kids led by an reckless blind man. We've taken their strongest piece...their leader. Without him, they'll cause about as much trouble as a chicken with its head cut off."

"We wait until Cuba to attack them then?" Onslaught spoke for the first time that morning. He'd taken to remaining silent, observing the others, only speaking when necessary. "Very bold, allowing them to take the offensive position. Though I can see how you might want to watch Erik try to get his revenge on you and fail. Surely, that is the worst punishment for him."

"Yes…" Shaw paused for a moment. He'd been considering the best way to deal with Erik and his new band of merry mutants since Onslaught had joined the Hellfire Club. A number of possibilities had crossed his mind, but something in Onslaught's comment struck him.

"Unless…he was very protective of those children. And, really, the worst punishment for him wouldn't necessarily just be not getting the revenge he's been after for so long." Onslaught tilted his head while the rest of the Hellfire Club listened intently to their leader. "The worst punishment for Erik would be to fail to protect those he cares about. To watch them die then die himself at the hands of yet another friend he failed all with the knowledge that he will never avenge his precious mother."

Onslaught raised his considering eyebrow and gave a nod of agreement. "Very true. That would be far more punishing for him. It would bring his life full circle nicely as well. You created him by destroying one he cared for in front of him. You end him doing the same."

Shaw looked to the telepath. "Do you know where they are?"

"Yes."

"Care to enlighten us?" Riptide sneered after Onslaught gave no indication he would continue. Fiery eyes turned to the wind raiser.

"No." 

Riptide recoiled under Onslaught's glare and remained silent. Onslaught turned back to Shaw, who looked faintly amused. "You mean to attack them before going to Cuba now?"

Shaw didn't answer, but his unfailing gaze at Onslaught made it unnecessary.

Onslaught didn't break Shaw's eye contact. "Are you usually so fickle with your plans?"

"I work well on my toes," Shaw said, bristling. "Besides, it's not a change in plans. It's an addition. Surely you can handle one additional strike," the man continued with a sickly sweet tone.

Onslaught gave a nonchalant shrug. "Are you sure that's the course of action you'd like to take? You told Charles after his capture that you would never kill your greatest creation."

Shaw gave bark of laughter. "Erik Lehnsherr lost that title as soon as you came into being." Onslaught gave the slightest nod to Shaw, acknowledging the compliment. Shaw continued. "Realistically though, our shindig in Cuba would be infinitely easier if it were…uncontested. Do you think you can handle that? They are your old friends after all."

Onslaught nodded. "I can take care of them. They are Charles' friends, not mine. But only Azazel will accompany me."

Riptide was affronted and looked to Shaw in protest. Shaw held up his hand, silencing him without looking away from the telepath.

"Why?"

"You said yourself it would be most effective for them to die at my hand. Having others there would distract from the fact that the one killing them has their friend's face. And Erik dying without you even overseeing it would be a terrible offense to him…a far worse death than anything you could dole out if you were present yourself."

"How very...logical," Shaw said, a half smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "But, no, I need more reason than that. I don't know why you're so set on killing them without the rest of us there, but now I'm curious. Care to try again?"

Onslaught stared at Shaw with barely narrowed eyes but gave no answer.

Shaw clapped his hands together once and stood straighter. "Excellent! Onslaught will take us to wherever our Erik and his friends are hiding tomorrow when I get back from my little errand. We'll kill them and be on our way. Any objections?"

Riptide gave Onslaught a haughty look. Onslaught kept his gaze on Shaw. Angel and Azazel held their tongues, the only sign of discomfort coming from Angel's twiddling thumbs.

"In that case," Shaw said with an arrogant smile, "I have a meeting to get ready for. I suggest you all prepare for what the future holds."

With that, Shaw left the room, followed by Angel. Riptide turned towards Azazel and the pair disappeared, no doubt to do some sort of training. Onslaught spared a glance at Azazel before they were gone. Alone in the room, Onslaught settled back in his chair and began rotating a letter opener in the air. Plans needed to be rearranged, but that was okay. In the end, he'd make sure everything went his way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone who doesn't know, Onslaught is in the comics and is the combination of Magneto and all the negative urges/desires Charles keeps himself from giving in to. That's paraphrased from Marvel Wiki. My version of him is a little different from the comics, but that's what fanfic is for, so it's all good.


	6. Chapter 6

"That was awesome Alex! Your aim is improving!"

Sean had stepped up to fill the void in encouragement and optimism left by the Charles' absence. The whole group was out on the lawn watching Alex practice. Raven and Hank were taking breaks from their respective regiments. Sean was waiting his turn to practice since Erik couldn't keep an eye on both him and Alex at the same time. Erik, not one to dole out praises, looked slightly pleased. The younger mutants figured was the best they were going to get from him.

"Yes, yes, now, try it again, but don't singe all the bushes next to your target. Control it!"

Alex prepared his next shot. Before he could take it, the group heard a familiar sound behind them. The younger mutants all tensed. The last time they'd heard that sound they'd found out their leader had been lost to them. The time before that they'd watched as blood and bodies rained down from the sky and seen one of their own killed.

Sure enough, as they turned they saw the red demon Azazel. He wasn't nearly as menacing this time however, standing with a blank look on his face. In a disturbing reversal, the menacing figure was the man next to him. Charles, no, Onslaught was leaning against a stone archway entrance to the house, arms over his chest, legs casually crossed over one another.

Erik moved to stand in front of the children, who gathered behind him. Onslaught gave a ghost of a smile, pushing off the wall and taking a few steps towards them.

"Erik Lehnsherr, protector of the innocent, is it now?"

"Why are you here Onslaught?" He had to stop himself from calling the thing standing before him Charles. The telepath smiled fully at the use of the name.

"I need to finish what I started New Hampshire."

Fear flickered across the young faces.

"But…why? Why now?" Sean croaked.

Onslaught shrugged with an air of nonchalance.

"You know too much about our plans."

"Our plans!" Erik scoffed. "You can't buy into that philosophy. You can't want the same things as- as Shaw! You're part of Charles! Not the good part, but part of him nonetheless. Shaw can't have deluded you that much."

"Yes, well," he answered vaguely. "All the same, you need to be out of the way."

The ambiguity of the answer caused Erik's brow to furrow. Then the realization hit him. 

"You're not really working for Shaw. You have a plan. A different plan."

The leer that Onslaught gave wasn't becoming of Charles' features. "You catch on far faster than Shaw. You're smarter than they give you credit for. Much more than just a killing machine. We may have underestimated your leadership abilities."

Erik bristled at the insulting compliment. He couldn't help but wonder if that meant Charles underestimated him as well.

"Oh don't worry," Onslaught said with a smirk, clearly having read Erik's mind. "Charles has plenty of faith in you. It's one of the issues we disagree upon. He thinks you're going to save him. That's something I'd like to prove him wrong about."

Throughout the exchange, a metal panel from the roof crept towards Onslaught, seemingly of it's own accord. As he finished speaking, the panel swung at the smaller man's head, aiming to knock him out. It stopped inches from its goal without so much as a flinch from its target. Frustration flashed across Erik's face as his ruse failed. Alex stepped out and shot a beam of energy towards Onslaught. The metal panel swung around, following the path the telepath's eyes drew for it. The blow hit the panel and deflected, hitting the ground a few meters away. Alex kept trying, hoping to distract him to give the others an advantage though not attempting to seriously harm him. Onslaught staggered back as the metal took a particularly strong blow aimed at his shoulder. A look of annoyance crossed his face.

"That's enough!"

The telepath promptly dropped the metal he'd been using as a shield. The five mutants had taken offensive positions, but found themselves unable to move. Onslaught strolled closer to the now frozen group of mutants, who could only follow him with their eyes.

Onslaught gave Erik a look of mock disappointment. "Oh Erik. Did you learn nothing from our last encounter? Anything you throw at me I can throw right back at you. I do appreciate the effort though. At least you didn't die lying down. But it's so much less fun when you can't fight back. Where's the challenge?"

Everyone stumbled forward as Onslaught released them.

"I'm sorry it has to end this way. It should have been so much more…epic."

Erik raised his hand, ready to defend himself, Banshee took a breath to scream and Alex prepared to fire another blast. Hank and Raven readied themselves to attack physically if the opportunity presented itself, knowing to stay clear of Alex, Sean, and Erik's initial attacks. Onslaught didn't look threatened in the least. Before anyone could act, he put a hand to his temple. His other hand shot out in front of him, like Erik's when he used his own ability. The mutants grabbed their heads in agony. The younger in the group fell to the ground. Erik fought to remain standing. He saw the children behind him, writhing in pain with blood pouring from their noses. Finally unable to support himself, he dropped to his knees as well. Through the involuntary tears of pain, Erik managed to look up at Onslaught. The thing with Charles' face was once more the picture of apathy, hand extended out, as his friends, his adopted family, screamed and writhed on the ground.

Erik was sure in that moment that they were going to die. The thought that he would never get his revenge on Shaw, after so many years, flashed across his mind. Oddly, that thought didn't linger for long. He felt blood trickling from his nose, knowing that the others were in a far worse condition than he was. His real focus was the man standing before them. He was sure Charles was in there somewhere. The telepath would never forgive himself if Onslaught killed them…if he ever managed to surface again.

In a split second, Erik saw Onslaught's true plan in coming there. Shaw would never have sent one of his henchmen to kill them. He'd want to watch Erik suffer and die himself. That meant Onslaught had come on his own. The entity was scared of Charles because Charles, and Charles alone, could overpower him. But not if he was crippled by guilt over the deaths of his friends. Killing them may very well be the final blow that would allow Onslaught to keep Charles at bay for good. Erik couldn't let that happen. In a last ditch effort, he pulled his head up, allowing his eyes to meet the fiery eyes of his friend. Words weren't his forte but they were they only weapon he had at this point. He took a stuttering breath.

"Charles, please! You're stronger than this! Fight him! Don't do this! Don't let him do this!"

Onslaught met his gaze. To Erik's surprise, the other man tensed. His hand pulled back tentatively. Erik let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding and panted as the pain lessened. Onslaught's fiery eyes flickered back to Charles' blue ones. They stared at each other.

"Charles?"

"Erik…" The one whispered word, barely audible as the man exhaled it, was full of pain and regret and under considerable strain.

The blue eyes stared back at him for a split second more before the fire returned. Onslaught jerked his hand all the way back, visibly disturbed at what had happened, and took a step away from the other mutants. In the blink of an eye, he was back with Azazel. They were both gone a second after that. Erik stared at the spot they had been as blood ran down his chin. He heard the movements of the children behind him as they recovered. He jumped as a hand dropped to his shoulder.

"We should go inside and get cleaned up." Hank was shaken but clearly not so injured that he couldn't stand. He offered the German a hand. As Erik let himself be helped up, he turned to see the other children pushing themselves up as well. Their faces were all covered in blood from their noses. Sean and Alex had blood coming from their ears as well. They stood dizzily, all looking to their de facto leader. Erik composed himself to the extent that he could with blood dripping down his face.

"We'll need to help each other clean up. Nobody is to be alone. There may be aftereffects we don't foresee."

Everybody nodded as much as their headaches would allow.

"Everybody inside."

With that, the children made their way to the mansion, Hank and Raven supporting the more affected Sean and Alex. Erik paused a moment longer and looked at the spot where Charles, the real Charles, had appeared, albeit briefly. He'd nearly died, but couldn't help the small smile that crossed his face. Onslaught had attempted to take their lives. Instead he had shown them that Charles was still reachable and given them a fighting hope. And if Charles had taught Erik anything, it was that hope is a very powerful thing.


	7. Chapter 7

As soon as they appeared back in the New Hampshire manor, Onslaught stalked to the room that had been designated to him, leaving a dazed Azazel behind without a second glance. He slammed the door and went to the bathroom, leaning on the sink before looking up into the mirror.

"Very clever, making me think you were too weak to overpower me."

His reflection looked back at him but seemed to have a subtle smirk that wasn't apparent on his actual face. Onslaught closed his eyes, opening them to find himself in small dark room with a cage. He strode over to it in four purposeful paces.

"You want to talk, Charles? Let's talk."

"Weren't expecting that, were you?" Charles' blue eyes shone from behind the cage bars where he stood. He wore the smirk the reflection in the bathroom mirror had carried.

"I admit you took me off guard. It won't happen again," Onslaught snapped back.

"And what makes you think you can stop it?"

"Because I'm the one in control now. I will push you down just like you've been pushing me down for all these years."

"Do you really think so? Why didn't you want Shaw to go to the mansion then? Was it really to keep Erik from his revenge? Or was it because you didn't want your new friends to see your weakness?"

Onslaught glared at Charles, searching for something behind his eyes. A moment later, he let a confident smile cross his face.

"Your friends are the only reason you were able to summon enough strength to fight me off."

"I won't let you kill them."

"You're already growing weaker, Charles." Onslaught walked around the cage lik a predator circling its prey, making Charles turn to keep watching him. "You're hiding it well but that little show took a lot out of you. I can feel it. You were barely able to stop me. Even when you did, you could only remain in control for a few seconds." The fiery-eyed man reached the front of the cage again and stopped, looking at his blue-eyed doppelganger. "Once you're too weak to do anything, I am going to kill your friends and you will be able to do nothing to stop it. Your guilt will consume you until you're just a whisper in the back of my head. You've had your turn with our body. Now it's mine."

"Even if you do manage to kill them, why should I feel guilt? You'll be the one to have done it, not me." Despite the confidence he was trying to exude, his voice wavered ever so slightly.

"Yes, but I will have done it with your body and our powers. They may be my actions, but you'll be the one who could do nothing to stop me. And we both know the one who does nothing as people die is just as much at fault as the killer himself."

Charles' lips became a thin line as he stared at Onslaught. "I'll fight you."

"You can," Onslaught said with a shrug, "but you've given away your advantage. Now that I know you're still fighting I can better restrain you."

The mask of defiance Charles had in place dropped, replaced with a tinge of pleading. "Why are you doing this? We're the same-"

"Don't try to pull that. I know how you think. We're the same, yes, and yet so different. We share…some things…the most important things you might say. But in the end, I am my own person and I will do whatever it takes to survive."

"I underestimated you. I admit it. But I think you're underestimating me too."

"I think you're wrong."

Onslaught's eyes focused on his counterpart, narrowing the slightest bit. Charles cried out and grabbed his head as Onslaught's gaze bored into him. He backed away from the bars, then collapsed unmoving in the middle of the cage.

Onslaught looked at the fallen version of himself with scorn. "You won't be nearly as much of a problem as you think you will be."

When he opened his eyes, he found himself back in the bathroom feeling much more in control than he had since his emergence.


	8. Chapter 8

The residents of the Westchester estate were cleaned up and somewhat recovered from their encounter with their former leader. They had once again congregated in Charles' study.

"So we know that Charles is still in there somewhere," Raven began, far more hopeful than she had since her brother had been taken. "If we can reach him…"

"It took us being in immediate danger for him to emerge," Hank interrupted. "If he had held us any longer, I think we'd be dead."

"Anyone have suggestions for reaching the Professor other than our imminent deaths?" Sean asked.

No one answered.

Erik glanced around at the now disheartened faces of the children. Normally, he would let Charles handle situations like these. Then again, normally he wasn't the one with hope where others had a distinct lack thereof. He sighed.

"We learned two things today. First, Charles is still fighting. Second, Onslaught is threatened by us. Our powers don't appear to concern him, so clearly that's not the reason he wants us dead. The best reason I can think of for him to try to kill us is because Charles is fighting him. We just need to find a way to make sure Charles wins."

Hank gave a hesitant nod. "Based on Onslaught's reaction after he regained dominance, we can assume Professor Xavier overpowering him hasn't happened before. It would then also be logical to assume that we were the catalyst."

"It was you talking to him that finally got Charles to push through," Raven offered, addressing Erik. Actually, Erik thought, it was less talking and more pleading, but as he didn't take pride in pleading, he didn't correct her.

"So we use words as weapons. I feel better already," added Alex with false cheer. His sarcasm, it seemed, became more bitter after nearly being killed. "We're still stuck with a powerful telepath working for a psychopath."

"No!" Erik contradicted, turning sharply to the boy. "He may be working with Shaw for now, but that's not his end game. I think he'd biding his time…waiting for the right moment to show his cards. Charles is far too smart to let Shaw plant ideas in his head. That means Onslaught is too."

"Yet he came to kill us," Alex retorted.

Erik let out a frustrated growl. "But not because Shaw told him to! He took the opportunity to come when Shaw gave it to him. He knows Charles will fight him to protect us and that our deaths would be a blow Charles may not be able to recover from. He needs us gone if he wants to maintain dominance and achieve whatever it is he wants to achieve."

"Which means that we can play a part in helping Charles," Raven said.

Sean had his eyes narrowed like he was trying to wrap his head around a particularly challenging algebra problem. "So it's actually a good thing he tried to kill us because it means we're important enough to be killed?"

"Yes!" Erik affirmed with a double-arm gesture that emphasized his relief. "If Charles came through once, he can do it again. Whatever part we may play in that, we need to be able to protect ourselves against any member of the Hellfire Club to the best of our abilities. If we warrant Onslaught's attention, we cannot allow ourselves to be defenseless."

Hank, Raven, and Sean looked fully convinced, even hopeful. Alex's pessimism seemed to have run its course as well, his frown having shifted to something more thoughtful. Erik risked a smile.

"We train again tomorrow."

* * *

After a rather lengthy errand (the world wasn't going to began a nuclear war without a bit of a push after all), Shaw returned to New Hampshire eager to once again break Erik Lehnsherr. He found the rest of his Hellfire Club already gathered in the large study. To say that he was displeased to hear his telepath hadn't followed through with the plan was an understatement.

"You're telling me that you not only disobeyed me and attacked your former allies on your own, but also failed to get them out of the way?"

Onslaught shrugged with one apathetic shoulder as a person would when presented with a hill after returning from the Alps. 

"You said you could take them!" Shaw roared the last two words and threw his arms up in the air in an uncharacteristic show of frustration as he paced.

Onslaught took a sip of scotch as he lounged in the highback chair in front of Shaw. "I said I could. I didn't say I would." 

"What, did you sit down and have a spot of tea with them? Maybe play some croquet?"

"I left an impact."

Shaw growled. "Is there any particular reason why you disobeyed me _and ___failed to kill them?"

Onslaught gave another unconcerned shrug. "I sensed the timing was right and I went. You were not here to confer with about the decision. I apologize if I've offended you."

"Offended me?" Shaw said with a false laugh. "You haven't offended me. You've disregarded my orders. I don't know why you were so set on going on your own, but I intend to find out. Right now, we have other things to arrange. They'll be prepared now that you've gone and given away part of the game. They're going to try to stop us, you know."

Onslaught raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to let them?"

"Of course not! Despite your insolence, we're unstoppable. We would have succeeded even without you. They'll just make it more difficult. And I don't like being disobeyed."

"Well, if it isn't difficult maybe it isn't worth getting." Onslaught continued to look unconcerned, but the fire in his eyes flared. "And before you continue to berate me, know this. You freed me and for that reason I remain to help you. Do not mistake me for one of your mindless minions. When the time comes, I will do what is necessary. Until then, it would be unwise to challenge me."

Onslaught drained the rest of his scotch, put down the empty glass and left the room. Angel turned tentatively to an irate Shaw.

"You're sure he wants us to win, right?"

Shaw ignored Angel and turned to Azazel. "If he's not going to kill them, you three can do it yourselves. Where did you take him?"

Azazel opened his mouth to answer, then looked puzzled. "I…do not remember."

Shaw closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "When it comes down to it, he'll stop them rather than having them spoil our plan. And if he doesn't, I'll kill him myself." He stalked from the room, leaving Azazel, Riptide and Angel to look at one another with a growing sense of unease.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erik and the others prepare for the upcoming battle.

In just the few days they'd been training, the four children had improved considerably in their abilities. Erik was thoroughly impressed, though he would never let that on to them. Being so focused on them, however, had left him little time to practice his own skills. He was able to train by himself in the mornings, but it wasn't the same as having to defend himself in an actual fight. Which led him to his present position, on the lawn of the Westchester mansion once again, surrounded by Alex, Hank, Sean and Raven. The ground was strewn with bits of metal and a couple of guns. The metal ranged from bullets to the metal panel from the roof to coins dropped accidentally through the years.

"See everything scattered around here?" He gestured to the ground.

"Yes," the mutants replied warily after a quick scan where Erik had gestured.

"I want you to throw it all at me. Banshee, use your voice to make it move. Mystique pick up a gun, shoot off as many rounds as you can then pick up another. Hank throw any of those larger metal scraps at me that you can. Alex, I want you to fire at me. Your aim is good enough now to do it. Everyone got it?"

The children stood frozen. Alex managed to find his voice. "You can't be serious. If you mess up then…then we'll kill you! How are we supposed to stop Shaw and save the Professor if you’re dead?!”

"I have to train too!” Erik huffed. “And if I don't test my ability to defend myself and you under massive attack, we'll all die anyway. I can do this."

The children looked to one another hesitantly. With a shrug, Sean screamed at the ground, causing some of the pieces to jump. As they did, he screamed again, shooting them towards Erik. Once one had acted, the others followed. Soon the air was filled with pieces of metal flying at Erik. He deftly stopped it all. He kept a panel Hank had thrown at him nearby. When Alex fired at him, he used the same trick as Onslaught, swinging the metal scrap around to block it. The deflected beam and hit an oncoming rock, which Hank had picked up once he ran out of metal scraps.

The surprisingly ferocious attack was finished within two minutes. All the metal, scraps, and bullets formed a circle around Erik, nothing within a meter of him. It looked like he'd had a protective bubble around him. He had even managed to use the metal pieces to deflect the non-metal that Hank had hurled at him, though the bruise on his shoulder proved that the first rock had taken him by surprise. As he glanced at the children, he took in their astonished expressions. It was then that he noticed the ground was further away than usual. He was levitating. He looked up at the children again, grinning widely and maneuvered himself back down to the ground. The children all grinned back at him excitedly.

"Dude, you can fly too!"

Erik chuckled at Sean's enthusiasm.

"And your offensive skills have improved. Well done everybody!" The younger mutants beamed at the unusual amount of praise coming from their usually withdrawn leader. "Take a twenty minute break. Then come back out here. We have more work to do."

* * *

That night, they sat at in the kitchen. The excitement of the afternoon had faded as the reality of going to Cuba the next morning set in.

"Okay," Sean started after Erik had made a last run through of what to expect in Cuba. "Plan A: Get through to the professor, kill Shaw, stop World War III."

"What was Plan B?" Alex asked after a pause.

"Get killed in the noble pursuit of getting through to the professor, killing Shaw, and stopping World War III," Sean answered without hesitation.

"Awesome," Alex finished, tone dripping with sarcasm. "Is there a Plan C?"

"Leave." Everyone looked to Erik in surprise. "I'm serious. Any of you who aren't up for this should leave now. It's not going to be easy. We never anticipated having to fight the man who's been training us, nor did we anticipate the amount of power he and Shaw combined possess. If you aren't willing to give 100% to this, if you aren't willing to give your lives, you should leave because you won't do us or Charles any good."

Everybody stood stock still. Erik looked at the children standing before him. Each stood tall, chins held high, more confident in themselves than when they first came to the mansion though understandably frightened as well. Their looks of determination were the only answer he needed. He nodded to them.

"We leave for Cuba in the morning. Everybody try to get some sleep. Tomorrow's a big day."

The children filed off to their rooms. He knew full well that they would be hard pressed to sleep that night. But they needed to rest at the very least.

Erik made his way to his own room. He sat on his bed staring at the Nazi coin in his hand. It was a physical reminder of his promise of revenge on Shaw, not just for his mother and himself anymore but for the horrors Charles must have gone through to have released Onslaught. In 24 hours, that promise would be fulfilled or he would be dead. He clinched the coin tightly, feeling it bite his palm.

"Fight for us Charles. We're coming for you."


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cuba...and Onslaught's plan is finally revealed

It was a warm, sunny day in Cuba. This, of course, meant nothing if one was, say, located in the depths of the ocean. From their position in the submarine, the Hellfire Club was focused not on the gorgeous weather, but instead on the Russian ship barreling towards the line that meant war.

They were so focused, in fact, that they didn't see Onslaught briefly close his eyes in concentration. When he opened them again, the touch of a smile gracing his face, no one was the wiser.

A moment later, Azazel pulled back from the viewer. "The Russians! They have fired on their own ship!"

Shaw whipped around to glare at Onslaught without hesitation. "What did you do?"

Onslaught's eyes flickered, but betrayed nothing. "Why would I do something to disrupt your plans? Perhaps they simply decided they didn't want a war."

Shaw growled and backhanded the telepath. Onslaught’s head snapped to the side, but he remained otherwise motionless. He turned his head back towards Shaw and licked the blood from the corner of his mouth. 

"I don't have time for this now," Shaw said pointing at Onslaught, "but don't think it's over." He turned to the rest of his crew and his anger dropped away, allowing his charismatic confidence to take over once more. "We move to Plan B. They're ready for war. We just need to strike another match to light the fuse. And we still have the most powerful weapon of all. Me!" His attention snapped to Azazel. "Turn the nuclear reactor to full output, and make sure I'm not disturbed."

Shaw stood close to the fiery-eyed Brit, once again pointing threateningly at the mutant. "I'm not stupid, telepath. Remember who's in charge here."

Onslaught raised an eyebrow but bowed his head in concession. With that affirmation, Shaw brushed past Onslaught heading towards the nuclear reactor. He didn't notice the telepath turn to look after him or upward twitch of his lips.

* * *

"Did that just happen?!"

The mutants in the jet looked down at the wreckage of the Russian ship.

"Why did they fire on their own ship?"

Erik wore a guarded expression, but said nothing. He had an inkling of what had really happened. He just didn't know why. "Is there any indication of where Shaw and Onslaught are?"

Hank, now blue and covered with fur, looked at some of the jet's instruments. "No. There's nothing unusual on the radar or scanners. They must be underwater."

"The submarine," Raven whispered.

"But we don't have a way to find a submarine!" Alex huffed in frustration.

Sean brightened. The redhead was about to speak up when Erik felt a familiar presence. He held up a hand to silence the children, turning his head as if listening.

_I can give you the coordinates you're looking for._

Despite expecting it, he still flinched as Onslaught's voice echoed in his mind.

_Why would you do that?_

_I need the submarine on land. You need to get to Shaw, which coincidentally would be easiest if the submarine was on land. Thus, we share a mutual goal._

Erik paused. _I take it you're the reason the Russians fired on their own ship._

_Couldn't very well trust them to do it themselves. Humans are so indecisive, even when they know the right course of action._

_But why?_

_So many questions! Really, Erik, is now the time to be asking them? Let's move back to the matter at hand, shall we? Do you want the coordinates or shall I improvise?_

_Why should I trust you?_

_Do you have a better option?_

Onslaught's smugness trickled through the telepathic link as Erik remained silent.

_I didn't think so._

The children stared at Erik with varying expressions of wariness. They'd seen the look on his face enough times to recognize it. It was the look he had when he talked with Charles telepathically.

"Should we do something?" Sean questioned in concern. "What if Onslaught's messing with his head?"

Raven shook her head. "What could we possible do? Just give him another minute-"

On cue, Erik snapped back to attention.

"I know where the sub is. Lower the landing gear."

* * *

The mutants manning the submarine stumbled as the vessel shifted upwards. Onslaught easily found a grip on the wall for support. The others followed his lead, steadying themselves as the submarine ascended. Riptide growled.

"I'll take care of this."

* * *

After the whirlwind faded, leaving both the sub and the plane grounded, the members of the two teams pushed their way out onto the beach. The fight began instantly. Erik ran into the sub, knocking Riptide out as he went. He cautiously made his way through the vessel. He had no idea where he was going, yet he somehow found himself exactly where he needed to go, as if he'd been guided there. He reached the place he knew Shaw should be, again unsure how he knew, but found it empty. He let out a yell of frustration. A door opened behind him.

"Erik, what a pleasant surprise."

* * *

Outside, the two teams of mutants fought, unaware of what was occurring between their leaders inside the crashed sub. Azazel teleported with Havok and Beast in tow to one of the ships. Moments later, Azazel and Beast reappeared on the beach. Shaw appeared and called Azazel's name. The distraction allowed Hank got a solid hit in, giving him enough time to turn to Banshee.

"Havok is still on the ship!"

Banshee propelled himself into the air and towards the ships. Angel followed. As they left, Shaw transformed back into Mystique. The two blue mutants shared a smile. Then Azazel was back upon Beast. He struck back with a growl.

* * *

Erik smashed into the wall.

"Why fight for a doomed race who will hunt us down as soon as they realize their reign is coming to end?"

Erik tried to fight back but found himself hitting the wall again.

"I'm sorry for what happened in the camps. I truly am. But everything I did, I did for you. To unlock your power. To make you embrace it. Look at little Charles! All grown up and helping the mutant cause."

"That isn't Charles," Erik grunted as he pulled as much metal down on Shaw as he could.

Shaw laughed and used the metal to pin Erik to the wall with a burst of energy. "I don't want to hurt you, Erik. I never did. I want to help you. This is our time. Our age. We are the future of the human race. You and me, son. This world could be ours."

Erik struggled to no avail. "That would be a lot more believable if you hadn't sent your new favorite to kill me."

"Oh, don't be jealous of your little brother," Shaw chided. "Consider it a test. You passed!"

Erik glared at the man who was now hovering inches from his face.

"I hate to interrupt this stirring moment," a belittling accented voice cut in from the side. The two men turned to the doorway to find Onslaught leaning against it. "But don't you have something you need to do, Shaw? Perhaps start that war you've been on about so much?" Anger rolled off Shaw, who looked back at Erik pointedly. The Brit rolled his eyes. "Oh you can finish your little conversation later. He's clearly no threat to you."

Shaw looked from Onslaught to Erik back to Onslaught. His evaluating gaze lingered on the telepath. The object of the man's attention remained passive as ever. After a few moments of silence, Shaw looked back to Erik. "Come on Erik. I think you'll enjoy this."

* * *

The mutants fighting on the beach were battered but none had surrendered. Riptide had regained consciousness and thrown himself back into the battle. Mystique kept making runs as him, but his winds blew her back. Banshee had returned to the beach with Havok. The latter's panel had been blown off, but he was somehow still managing to maintain considerable control of his blasts. Banshee had been injured in his fall, but not badly enough to warrant concern. Angel attacked viciously, furious that one of her wings had burned. Azazel continued to attack Beast, clearly frustrated that he hadn't won yet.

Movement drew everyone's attention to the submarine. The fighting stopped as the mutants watched three men emerge from the vessel. One walked confidently with the arrogance of a man who was sure his plan could never fail. The second glided beside him, enveloped by an ethereal orange, unreadable yet with an air of superiority. The third stumbled behind, bruised and bleeding, not even threatening enough for the first two to fear having their backs to him.

Onslaught stopped just before reaching the other mutants. Erik staggered over to his contingent, who had gathered on one side leaving the Hellfire Club on the other. Shaw continued to move forward, placing himself in the middle of everyone.

"We have no need to fight each other," Shaw began. "Take off your blinders, brothers and sisters. The real enemy is out there. They're targeting us. Americans, Soviets, humans. United in their fear of the unknown. The Neanderthal is running scared! Am I right?"

Shaw looked to Onslaught, who put his hand to his forehead in a mimicry of Charles. After barely a second of concentration, he gave an affirmative nod, though his face betrayed neither shock nor fear. In the other mutants, however, panic began to blossom. Shaw spoke again.

"On this day you will witness the beginning of something great. A new empire. An empire led by us. The humans will die away and we will ascend to the place that is rightfully ours."

Shaw vibrated with the power he had absorbed, ready to release it upon the ships. It was building up, charging, about to be released when-

"If I may…"

Shaw gave an exasperated sigh and looked over to Onslaught, more annoyed than anything else. Once he knew Shaw's focus was on him, he continued.

"Don't you think there may be a better way to go about this? Perhaps inciting nuclear war is a bit…dramatic."

"Questioning the plan now, Onslaught?" Shaw said, unfazed. "You knew this was coming. Now shut up and watch."

Shaw focused on the ships once more, only to be interrupted again.

"I'm afraid I can't let you start this war. So much needless destruction. There are other options."

Shaw sighed again, this time it was one of resignation. "I thought this might happen. Don't think I was oblivious to the signs. You were far too vague, left too much up to implication, not to mention the obvious betrayals ."

"And yet you still brought me here. Your arrogance will be your downfall."

Shaw gave a short laugh. "It's such a shame. You had so much potential. We could have been great together. You, me, and Erik."

Onslaught looked amused. "You really are delusional, aren't you?"

"You were fun. It's too bad it couldn't last."

Without further warning, Shaw threw a bright wave of concentrated energy at Onslaught. Erik let out a yell that resembled the word "no". Sean, Alex, Hank, and Raven had to hold him back. They watched in horror as the light enveloped the man they'd come so far to save. The light was so intense that everyone observing had to shield their eyes.

When the light dissipated and everyone had blinked the spots from their vision, they couldn't help but stare in shock at the sight before them.

Onslaught stood untouched in the same position as before. He gazed haughtily at Shaw, who for the first time had a look of surprise on his face.

"How-"

"You really aren't as bright as you like to think you are. At least when it comes to me."

"You should be dead!" Shaw's frustration was now tinged with fear.

"Yes and anybody but me would be. You see, your energy is part of what allowed me to manifest. Therefore, it's a part of me."

Shaw stared at him uncomprehending. Onslaught sighed and shook his head. "It's like talking to a child. Your energy can do nothing to me because it's part of who I am. It only serves to make me stronger. Why do you think I wanted you to absorb all that nuclear energy?"

"This was your plan all along."

"I'm afraid so."

The other mutants on the beach followed the dialogue like a tennis match, heads swiveling in unison following the words thrown by each opponent in rapid succession. Fortunately for Erik, the banter was giving him sufficient time to recover from his encounter with Shaw. The others were recouping as well, ready to spring into action when the argument between Shaw and Onslaught inevitably came to a head. For now, all there was to do though was watch and wait.

Shaw snorted. "What is it that you're really after then? What's your grand plan?" He made a wide mocking gesture at the end of his last question.

Onslaught's face remained dangerously neutral. "Peace."

Shaw, not to mention the other mutants on the beach, stared at Onslaught like he was an elf riding a unicorn. Onslaught openly smiled at the reaction.

"Your mistake was in forgetting that I am still part of Charles Xavier. While I am far more aggressive strategically, we nevertheless share the same goals. I will see humans and mutants living in peace. No matter what the cost."

"So you turned me into a giant nuclear bomb? Excellent strategy for achieving peace," Shaw sneered.

"There's more than one way to use that energy. You would use it for destruction, yes, but I have other purposes for it."

"And how exactly do you plan on getting at it without me blowing everything to hell? You can't win this."

"On the contrary. As we've established, your energy is part of me. I require more energy than I have to achieve my goal. I needed you to convert a vast amount of energy that I could then take from you. I'm afraid it will be quite painful. And it will leave you quite dead."

Shaw's confidence faltered. "You…you can't do that."

Onslaught’s responding smile was malicious. No longer was he the indifferent, apathetic man he had appeared early in his manifestation. "I hope you appreciate what I'm doing here. I could have found other sources of energy. But this way is so much more fun. You spent your whole life trying to make war with humans, doing unspeakable things to your fellow mutants to achieve your goals. Now you will give your life so that there will be peace." His face darkened. "I have looked into your soul, Sebastian Shaw. I have seen what you have done. And I judge you to deserve nothing less than for your death to bring about the very thing you spent your whole life striving to destroy. Do you agree Erik?"

Not expecting the sudden attention upon him, Erik could only gawk.

"I'll take that as a yes,” Onslaught continued, amused. “I apologize, but you won't be getting your revenge on Shaw. If it's any consolation, his death will be excruciatingly painful."

Without waiting for a reply, Onslaught raised one arm towards Shaw. The other arm he moved in a wide waving gesture. A strip of metal from the submarine pulled the metal helmet from the man's head. Not that it would have saved him anyway. It seemed as if Onslaught just wanted to prove that he could have done it all along, but chose not to.

Shaw barely had time to look afraid before he started screaming. It was the horrific scream of a wretched, arrogant man who had been caught completely off guard. Shaw tried to fight back, but the energy pulses he sent out only strengthened Onslaught. Nobody could move as they watched the seemingly invincible mutant wither before their eyes at the hands of, for all intents and purposes, a boy. Shaw's screams died away. As the last of Shaw's energy was drained from him, the man looked to Erik, who returned his gaze with malice and a touch of shock. Then he fell to the sand.

Sebastian Shaw was dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you probably noticed, some of Shaw's quotes came directly from the movie. This is also the last chapter that draws from the movie.


	11. Chapter 11

Erik stared at the empty husk of the man he'd spent virtually his whole life hunting with blank shock. The man was finally dead, though not by his hand. He wasn't sure how to feel. His gaze wandered back to Onslaught, a sight which snapped him back to reality. The fiery aura around the telepath had expanded, looking more like a bubble now. Erik could feel the power pulsing from him. Onslaught smiled manically, his crackling eyes on Erik before shifting out to the ocean. Erik and the other mutants followed his line of sight.

The ships chose that moment to fire their weapons. Onslaught tilted his head. The missiles blew up in midair before Erik could even touch them with his powers. The telepath continued to stand with his focus on the ships for no more than three seconds. The two fleets began to sail away.

"No need for distractions," Onslaught offered in explanation when the mutants turned back to him.

Erik began stalking towards the man responsible for Shaw’s death, not sure exactly what he would do but sure he should do something. He stopped when the telepath gave him a look of warning. Keeping his distance, he closed his eyes and took a calming breath. Now was not the time to let his rage get the best of him. Now was the time to evaluate the situation. His eyes opened again.

"What do you need the energy for, Onslaught?"

"Oh, come now Erik, I just killed Shaw for you! I thought you might be a touch more gracious."

Erik's jaw clinched. He spoke again, giving each word harsh emphasis. "What do you need the energy for, Onslaught?"

"Fine then, if you must know, I need it to achieve my peace. See, with this energy, I can create a web with myself at the center. The web will spread and connect every mind on the planet in a sort of collective consciousness. With my influence, everybody will live in peace." He paused then gave a huff of frustration at the blank stares he received in response. "Everyone will be connected to me. If anyone so much as thinks of violence, I can stop them!"

Horror blossomed on Hank's face. "Because you'll be controlling the way people think," the scientist replied slowly. "You're going to take away free will."

The others jolted as they realized the gravity of what Hank’s accusation.

Onslaught continued with fervor. "Don't you see though? I can create the world of peace we've all dreamed of!"

"But…you'd be taking away free will!" Angel reiterated. "That's…that's slavery!"

"What would you rather have? War, death and destruction? Or peace with no knowledge of what you'd given up for it? Isn't it worth a little sacrifice to live in a world free of fear?"

"That's not a little sacrifice!" Alex scoffed in disbelief. "That's taking away a basic function…you'd be enslaving humanity!"

Onslaught's nose crinkled. "Enslave is such a strong word. Think of it less as slavery and more as a parent helping children see what's best for them. Mutants and humans are a bit like bickering siblings after all."

"You would enslave your own kind?" spat Ripide.

"For the good of everyone. After all, mutants have thoughts of disrupting peace as much as humans do, if not more." Onslaught shot a pointed look at Erik.

The two groups of mutants glanced to one another and came to a silent agreement. They would act against Onslaught together. They took attack stances.

"Really?" Onslaught chuckled. "Attacking me again? When has that turned out in your favor?"

"It only takes getting the upper hand once to win," Alex said, repeating the words Erik had drilled into them over their training.

Onslaught was unaffected, giving an amused smile. "You know you'll die."

Erik stepped towards the telepath. "I would rather die trying to preserve free will than live in a world without it."

"Very poetic," Onslaught replied, sarcasm flagrant. "Epic even. This is a far more worthy way to die than sprawled on the lawn of a mansion. Charles would be proud."

The orange aura around Onslaught was beginning to shape upwards into a volcanic cone of sorts. It spread above the mutants' heads and fed into the air…the beginnings of the psionic web. It didn't touch those on the beach, whether by choice or necessity they didn't know.

Azazel disappeared in a wisp of smoke. Onslaught paused, eyes becoming distant. A long piece of metal levitated near him then swung through the air at nothing. Nothing, that is, until Azazel appeared directly in its path. The perfectly timed hit smashed into his side. The red mutant disappeared and reappeared on the other side of Onslaught only to be hit by another piece of metal that had predicted his presence. He again disappeared, this time reappearing behind Onslaught, but taking a good whack to his leg. Onslaught never moved. His expression shifted towards the spot Azazel had been standing before with the others. A split second later, Azazel appeared there, wobbly and holding his side in pain. The fiery-eyed man gave him a mocking half smile.

While Onslaught soundly defeated Azazel, the attack distracted him enough that he didn't notice Erik pick up Shaw's discarded helmet. As soon as it was on the German's head, though, the telepath's attention shot over to him, apparently noticing the absence of his thoughts.

"Taking up where Herr Doktor left off are we?"

Erik's face darkened but, showing impressive control, he didn't allow himself to be goaded. "Never. Just making sure that you can't stop me from doing what needs to be done."

Erik felt something wrap around the helmet and tug. Asserting his powers, he kept it firmly on his head. Onslaught's eyes narrowed in annoyance. It was Erik's turn to smirk.

"We can both control metal. That trick you pulled with Shaw won't work on me."

"No, I suppose it won't. No matter. I may not be able to hurt you, but I can certainly hurt your friends."

Alex let out a cry of surprise as he was thrown through the air. It ended with a grunt as he slammed into a nearby tree with impressive force. The blonde crumpled to the ground and didn't move aside from short, ragged breaths that indicated he was at least alive.

"Very good of you to use metal in the suits, Hank. Thank you!" Onslaught mocked.

Beast growled. Erik's eyes flashed in anger as he whipped his head from Alex to Onslaught. Onslaught gave a look of unadulterated arrogance before another short cry was heard this time from Raven. Erik's arm flew out towards the cry. Raven, who had been following a trajectory similar to Alex, jerked to a stop in midair and, after hovering for a moment, dropped back to the ground. Onslaught's arrogance shifted to something closer to being impressed.

"You're stronger than you were before."

"I've been training. And it helps to know some of your tricks."

Onslaught turned his full attention to Erik, then threw a mangled piece of the jet his direction. Erik easily deflected it. He retaliated by sweeping metal of his own at his opponent, though he quickly learned not to as the telepath deflected whatever was thrown at him towards the other mutants who then had to duck and cover. As Onslaught hurled more metal at Erik, the German managed to spare a glance to Raven. It was quick, but she got the message.

"Charles, stop him! Stop Onslaught" the blue girl shouted. "You're better than this! You can beat him!"

Onslaught paused, sparing a glance in the shapeshifter's direction. "You aren't going to reach Charles. I've pushed him down too far."

With Onslaught’s attention on Raven, Erik hadn’t been expecting the piping the entity swung at his legs. He reacted on instinct and levitated to avoid it. Onslaught again appeared somewhat impressed.

"You've learned a new trick! Fascinating!"

"Yes," Erik said, continuing to hover above the ground and trying to ignore how much the excitement at this new discovery made the man standing before him sound like Charles. He had to try to get through to his friend. "I've found the serenity in my rage just as you showed me, Charles. I'm stronger than I was before. Now it's your turn. Show me the strength I know you have. Fight!"

Onslaught laughed, but it quickly died away. Erik didn't miss the flicker of confusion that crossed the telepath's face…as if he'd heard something in the distance he hadn't expected. Something like a consciousness that was supposed to be caged away. It was working.

A piece a metal swung at Erik's head. He dropped back down to the ground to avoid it only to take a hit to his side. He fell with a hiss of pain. Before the piping could hit him again, he stopped it with this power. More metal flew at him much more violently than before. If he hadn't been sure his strategy was working before, the increase in Onslaught's assault certainly proved it.

Seeing Onslaught's aggression and coming to the same conclusion as Erik, the rest of the mutants threw anything they could at the mutant and his psionic web. A screech from Sean caused Onslaught to lose his concentration. The pipe and metal hit the sand. Erik pulled himself from the ground. Azazel was teleporting at random, not getting close to Onslaught and never staying in the same place for more than a second. Sean let out screams of varying frequencies. Angel spit fire. Hank threw whatever non-metal he could get his hands on. Riptide hurled gusts of wind at the fiery figure. They were giving Erik his opportunity to speak while Onslaught was too distracted by the multiple attacks and keeping his growing web under control to attack back. Erik moved towards the telepath.

"Charles! I know you can hear me! Fight back! Onslaught is part of you, not the other way around. You can control him! Peace is not more important than free will! It isn't true peace if people don't choose it! You know this. Don't let him take free will from us."

For the first time, a shadow of fear fell across Onslaught's face.

"Stop it."

The calm tone was negated by Onslaught's eyes darting at the chaos around him. He took a step away from Erik's advances, staggered as he narrowly avoided a fireball, and startled as Azazel appeared and disappeared a few feet away from him. With a growl of annoyance, metal was hurled at the place Azazel appeared next. The fact that it missed only encouraged Erik. The German smiled, throwing a glance to the others.

"Come on, Charles!" Raven shouted above Riptide's winds. "We know you can do this! We know you're stronger than Onslaught! Remember that night you came into my room after your nightmare? You said you would never let him out. That you would never release that upon the world. I believed in you then and I still believe in you now! I know you're stronger than he is! You are the strongest person I know!"

"Yeah!" Sean added. "I've never seen anyone with as much power as you fight so hard not to use it. You could rule the world, but instead you want peace. I haven't known you as long as Raven has, but I know that if you set your mind to something, you'll get it. That's why I know you'll find a way for mutants and humans to live in peace without controlling everybody. And why I know you'll beat Onslaught."

"You believed in us and gave us strength," Hank picked up. "You showed me that it was okay to be the way I am. You taught Sean to fly. You stood with enough confidence for us both as Alex shot between us. You controlled Cerebro with nothing but your mind. All those acts prove just how strong you are. You are the most powerful telepath the world has seen. Certainly stronger than this being your mind created."

Erik took over once more. "We all know you can do this, Charles! Prove us right!"

The web above Onslaught flickered and began to collapse into itself. The mutants grinned. The grins faded as they noticed the furious telepath still sparked with power, more so now that he wasn't as focused on his web. In fact, without the web to distract him, he focus his energy on a more important task…keeping Charles at bay. And keeping Charles at bay, Erik realized, was contingent upon shutting them up.

"ENOUGH!"

Erik stepped back from the sheer force of the yell. Everybody else froze. Erik, protected by the helmet, swung around at the sudden silence and lack of movement. The mutants were statuesque. Erik threw his attention back to Onslaught. Instead of his usual collected self, the telepath was breathing hard, slouched over slightly. Nonetheless, he tossed a look at Erik before shooting his arm out in the direction of the unmoving figures, eyes narrowing in concentration. The unprotected mutants could only wince, held motionless otherwise by the will of the mind controller. Erik's eyes widened.

"No! Charles, fight harder! Don't let him kill them!"

Erik tried to move towards Onslaught, but the mutant was still powerful enough to throw a deluge of metal at him. He had to use all of his concentration to stop it. If he was going to win this, he was going to have to do it with words. Blood dripped to the sand from the faces of the incapacitated figures.

"Please, Charles! Push Onslaught down! I know you want peace, but I know Onslaught's plan is not the way you want to achieve it! There are other ways! We can find them together! All of us! Your family!"

Onslaught blinked then grabbed his head.

"No! You can't do this! You're not strong enough!"

Though he said the words out loud, it was obvious he wasn't talking to anyone on the beach. The other mutants remained frozen. But the one person Onslaught couldn't control was the one who was having the greatest impact. Erik repeated encouragements and reassurances while keeping the metal being thrown at him at bay. Everyone else was jerking forward then freezing again as the telepath lost and regained control.

"I'll kill them all!" screamed Onslaught in his final fight for dominance.

He raised as much metal in the air as he could, swinging it around madly trying to hit anybody and everybody. If he was going down, he didn't want to be the only one. They were easy targets. Raven cried out as a bolt hit her leg and bounced off, leaving a trail of blood. Sean broke through Onslaught's weakening control long enough to give a screech and deflect a pipe, saving himself from being impaled before jerking to a stop again. The debris was getting close to lethal speeds. Erik levitated into the air and tried to exert some control over the metallic torrent, but it was so chaotic and had such force behind it that there was little he could do aside from slowing it down minimally. He did manage to stop some tubing from embedding itself in Hank's side. The scientist looked grateful, then-

"NO!"

The single pain-laced word echoed across the beach and in the minds of all those who were unshielded. Everything stopped. The frozen mutants fell forward a step as they regained the ability to move. The debris hung in the air like jewels from a chandelier sparkling in the sunlight. Erik lowered himself to the ground, attention fully on Charles, who stood slouched and panting but without the aura that had been surrounding him. Erik threw the helmet from his head without hesitation. The telepath's blank gaze moved to the German. The relief Erik felt was indescribable as he saw his friend’s cool blue eyes that so often radiated warmth. It was a stark contrast to Onslaught, whose eyes were cold despite the fire burning within them. The two stared at one another as they had after Onslaught's attack in Westchester. For one shining moment, Erik thought everything would be okay. Then Charles' eyes disappeared again, this time behind eyelids, and he collapsed to the sand.

That was when all hell broke loose again.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive me for this additional battle. It's just me coddling my desire for whumping.

As soon as Charles collapsed, the remnants of the Hellfire Club decided the truce was over.

"What are you doing?!” Erik yelled over Riptide’s renewed winds. “Your leader is dead! Onslaught is gone! You have nothing to gain from a fight!"

"That," Riptide said pointing to Charles' motionless form, "is far too powerful to be allowed to exist. He could have destroyed us all with a thought. We are safer with him gone."

"No!" Erik yelled, desperation coloring his tone. "Charles isn't a threat to you! That was Onslaught!"

"They are one in the same. What assurance do we have that Onslaught won't return? It is better for them both to be gone than to risk it."

With that, Riptide increased his fierce whirlwind, throwing debris and the metal around haphazardly. He spread it wide in order to aid his skirmishing comrades. Angel spit fire at Banshee, which he deflected back at her as well as any debris he could catch in his sonic wave. Azazel was again using his strategy of disappearing and reappearing at random to attack Beast. Apparently, the scientist in Beast was able to discern patterns in Azazel's movements because he seemed to be able to predict where the mutant would appear on occasion and get in a few hits, saving himself from being stabbed several times in the process.

Mystique gave a concerned look to her collapsed brother before running to Alex. He had regained consciousness not long after hitting the tree, but hadn't seemed able to do much other than prop himself up. With the force of the throw, he would be incredibly lucky if the only things he suffered were cracked ribs. Erik just hoped the boy didn't have internal injuries that needed to be attended to. Alex was brushing off Raven's attempts to help him, apparently telling her to help their comrades. Seeing this, Erik let some of his concern go. Now was not the time to worry, he thought, though he couldn't help a sideways glance at Charles, who still hadn't moved. Steeling himself for one more battle, Erik threw any metal he could at Riptide. The wind-raiser used his gale force winds to sweep it away. Everyone was fighting the wind as it whipped around them, dodging debris as they fought their battles.

Though Riptide had no control over where the debris in the wind went, sooner or later something would no doubt reach its goal. Raven noticed it first, the particularly sharp branch rocketing towards the form lying in the sand.

"Charles!"

The shapeshifter's scream alerted Erik to what was about to happen. He threw his arm out in a desperate wave. A large chunk of metal from the plane flew through the air, intercepting the branch an arm's length from Charles. Both the branch and metal fell harmlessly to the ground. He'd had enough. With one hand outstretched, he barreled towards Riptide.

Riptide seemed to know a determined Erik was unbeatable. Still, he gave an ugly smile, having seen Erik's weakness. He focused all the wind and the debris therein at Charles, giving up on helping his comrades in order to achieve his ultimate goal and deter the man set on attacking him. Erik skidded to a stop and swung his other hand out. Another large metal panel ripped away from the jet and positioned itself in front of the unconscious telepath. It was a battle of wills as Riptide and Erik strained their powers to kill and save Charles Xavier respectively.

The lack of Riptide's fierce winds made the rest of the attacks going on infinitely easier, something the wind-raiser clearly hadn't anticipated. Alex had recovered enough to take Angel by surprise, knocking her unconscious before falling to his knees himself. Sean rushed over to help him. Hank continued fighting Azazel, the pair seemingly oblivious to the rest of the beach. Riptide was so focused on beating at Erik's metal barrier that he didn't notice Mystique running at him.

"Leave my brother alone, you bastard!"

A swift kick to the head and the wind around them stopped as Riptide collapsed. Azazel, finally noticing his comrades down, flashed over to Angel and disappeared with her, appearing moments later next to Riptide and disappearing with him as well.

The remaining mutants stood out of breath from the abruptly ended battle. Erik regained his sense of motion first. He sprinted to Charles, discarding the piece of metal he'd been using to shield his friend with the wave of his hand. He fell to his knees and pulled Charles into his arms. Relief swept over him as he saw the rise and fall of the telepath's chest. At least he was alive.

"Charles? Can you hear me? Wake up."

Charles remained still.

"Wake up!" Erik demanded louder, shaking the man in his arms. Charles' body jostled but did little else besides continue to breath. His relief at having his friend back in his possession began to slip away. The physical and emotional toll of everything that had happened came crashing into him at once. Having to lead a group of teenagers, facing off against his best friend (shortly after realizing that he did, in fact, have a best friend…a startling revelation in itself), finally seeing Shaw dead after all his years of hunting, Charles winning out against Onslaught but seemingly unresponsive, not to mention the exhaustion and injuries from fighting. 

"Please wake up." His voice had turned small, questioning, like the voice of the boy who haunted a concentration camp eighteen years before. A tear fell onto Charles' slack face. Erik realized it was his. The younger mutants moved towards the pair, forming a circle around their two leaders. Erik quickly composed himself, wiping the tear track from his face with a subtle swipe. He had to be strong for the others. For Charles. If the children had noticed his emotion, they gave no indication. Raven knelt by Charles' head, gently brushing down his unruly hair.

"Is he- Is he okay?"

"He's breathing," Erik responded. "Otherwise, I don't know."

"We need to find a way to get out of here," Sean said, worry coloring his voice. Beside him, Alex had sat down hard, clearly still suffering from the collision with the tree.

Erik refused to let go of Charles, but turned to take stock of what materials they had and what their options were. There was a lot of metal lying around, but after everything that had happened that day, he very much doubted he could handle controlling it as a vessel to get back to the United States.

The telltale poof that came with Azazel's appearance interrupted his thought process. Hank, Raven, and Sean were in front of their injured comrades in seconds. Erik would be proud when he thought about it later. Now, though, he was focused on the threat. Azazel held his hands out in a non-threatening gesture.

"I mean you no harm. I am here to offer to take you off the island."

Sean and Raven glanced back at Erik for guidance. Hank never took his eyes off Azazel. Erik paused a moment before giving Raven a small wave. She came to him and took his place supporting her unconscious brother. Erik stood and walked to Hank's side.

"Why should we trust you?"

"It was a battle. We lost. Our leader is dead, so I have no orders to follow but the codes of war. We go back to our side and treat our wounded, you go back to yours and do the same. We had the means return to our base. It is only fair to offer you that opportunity as well."

Erik stared at Azazel, who had apparently taken a few lessons from Onslaught on remaining stoic. After evaluating the mutant, he glanced back to Charles and Alex. Alex obviously needed medical attention. Charles…he didn't know what to make of Charles, but he knew they couldn't stay on the beach. It was worth the risk. 

"Very well. Take us to a hospital in Westchester, New York."

Azazel gave a curt nod. "Everyone must link hands."

Without pause, Erik returned to Charles and lifted him from the ground. Sean and Hank helped Alex to his feet. Once she no longer held Charles, Raven got up and moved towards Azazel. She tentatively allowed him to grab her hand. The boys formed a chain from Raven, none of them wanting to come into direct contact with the demon-like mutant. Erik stood at the end. Hank gripped his shoulder, since both his arms were occupied with supporting Charles.

Everyone was so focused on getting Alex and Charles the help they needed that nobody noticed as Erik surreptitiously moved his foot to touch Shaw's helmet, taking it with them as they disappeared from the beach in wisps of black smoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of my reviewers from the initial publishing were okay with Azazel coming back to take the X-Men off the island, but I did have one person who said it seemed out of character. Here's my defense, which is basically what I say in the fic. We don't really get to hear much from him in the movie, but I feel like he'd be the type who would be very aware of and dedicated to the codes of war and honor. Leaving your opponents (who have proven themselves worthy through defeating Shaw and the Brotherhood) to the elements or the broader enemy (humans) would be dishonorable. This is my little world and I'm sure there are people who feel differently, but that's how my brain works, so there it is.
> 
> Also, Charles was kidnapped before Raven had her ridiculous blow-up at him, so she's very much the sister who wants her brother back who's willing to put any resentment she's been feeling on the backburner. That is part of what shapes her characterization throughout the sequels. I hope it's apparent in what I write, but I just wanted to throw it out there.


	13. Chapter 13

Charles lay on one of the beds in Hank's lab turned infirmary.

"How is he?" Erik asked as Hank finished taking readings.

"The same," the scientist replied after a quick glance at the results. Erik looked disappointed as he sat down by Charles' side again. Hank moved to one of his many tables to analyze the tests further. The German been keeping vigil over Charles since they'd returned from the hospital. A voice came from the other bed set up nearby.

"He'll be okay," Alex said, weak but confident. "It probably took a lot out of him being an all powerful mutant. He'll wake up soon."

Erik gave a melancholy smile but otherwise did nothing aside from sit by the bed, elbows propped on his knees, watching Charles.

The telepath had been unresponsive since the beach. Azazel had teleported them to a wooded area near a hospital. Raven thanked him. The demon-like mutant responded that if they were to meet again in battle he wouldn't hesitate to kill them all. Still, no one missed the look he gave the girl as she skittered to her brother, still being carried by Erik, just before he teleported away.

Erik hated hospitals. That was why, after staying overnight to be safe, he checked Alex and Charles out, claiming they had private medical care at the Xavier mansion. The doctors knew enough about the Xavier family to believe it possible. It wasn't a complete lie. After all, they had a person with some medical experience. He just also happened to be a scientist and engineer.

Alex had a concussion and several bruised and broken ribs which would take a good month or two to heal fully. He was told to take it easy for a while and given pain medication, which made the following days considerably more fun, though clearly the mood was still heavy as Charles hadn't woken.

The doctors were baffled by Charles' case. Physically he seemed fine besides signs of overexertion. However, they felt strongly that he should have woken up or at least shown some signs of consciousness. As it was, they diagnosed him with mental and physical exhaustion, saying there was nothing they could do other than wait for him to wake. It was with great reluctance that they let Erik leave with him. Erik was positive the only reason they finally complied was because Charles' private doctor came in and attested that he would be taking over Charles' care at the mansion. One of the nurses swore later that she saw the doctor's eyes flash gold as they left, but she'd had a long shift and everyone laughed it off, insisting that her mind was playing tricks on her.

Hank had come back to the mansion straightaway, seeing as how a large, furry, blue man might be somewhat alarming to the general population. By the time the rest of the group returned the following evening, he had converted one of his labs into a medical facility. Two beds were set up. As soon as Charles was situated in one of them, Hank had run some tests and set up a device that apparently measured Charles' brain activity. Erik didn't like the look of it, but Hank said they'd used it before so he let it go.

"Is he going to be okay?" Erik asked, not fully trusting the hospital doctor's assessment.

"His brain waves are slightly erratic, but otherwise it seems like the doctor was right. He's exhausted himself physically and mentally. I think the only thing we can do is wait for him to wake up."

Alex was set up in the second bed. Raven sat by her brother. Erik looked like he wanted to be in her place, but walked out, saying he'd be back shortly. He'd dropped something in the woods outside the hospital. Sean offered to go with him, but Erik insisted he go alone.

True to his word, Erik had returned quickly. He never told them what he had dropped that was so important. Between taking care of a medicated Alex and an unconscious Charles, the matter fell between the cracks and was quickly forgotten.

* * *

That brought them to the present. It was four days after Cuba. Alex was still spending a good deal of time in the infirmary, but occasionally went outside and gingerly wandered around after growing antsy from being stuck in bed.

Someone was always by Charles' side. They had a rough schedule, though Raven frequently came when it wasn't her 'shift' to sit and read to him. Erik, however, was a constant presence. He would mostly sit in the corner close enough to keep an eye on the sleeping man but far enough away that he startled whoever came in when he was noticed. Hank had tried to get him to leave once. The others still didn't know what Erik had threatened him with but Hank was wary of him for days.

It was on the fourth day that Raven looked up from reading the most recent genetics articles she could get her hands on to find Charles looking back at her. Her yell for Hank brought everyone running. When the door slammed open, they found Raven attached to Charles in a hug and groggy blue eyes looking back at them. Erik had disappeared.

Charles remembered a majority of what had happened, though between the attack on them at the mansion and the confrontation on the beach it got a little fuzzy. Hank had ordered that he stay in the infirmary for at least three more days, just to assure them all that he was recovering both physically and mentally. Charles obviously didn't like being cooped up but, at the looks of the others, decided it was best to follow Hank's advice.

The day after he woke up, Sean took it upon himself to entertain the telepath. He told Charles all about their training, adding his own commentary that had the others laughing in fits (though Alex winced more than laughed as laughing jostled his ribs). When Sean got to the part where Onslaught had appeared in Westchester to kill them, the telepath was distraught.

"I'm so, so sorry. I tried to stop him, but he just-"

"Are you kidding? He tried to assassinate us!" the redhead exclaimed as if it was the most exciting thing in the world. "No one's ever tried to assassinate me before! How cool is that going to make me sound when I ask out girls?"

Charles broke into a disbelieving yet amused grin. "Well, then, at least one good thing came out of all this."

Sean beamed. Outwardly, it was due to being important enough to assassinate. Really, he was thrilled to have gotten the professor to smile, no small task in the day since the man had regained consciousness. He spared a glance to the others, who were reveling in his success as well.

The smile on Charles' face faded. "Where's Erik? I haven't seen him since I woke up."

"He said…he's been busy getting things done around the house," Raven replied hesitantly. "We didn't have time for much else while we were training."

"Right. Understandable." Despite his words, the telepath couldn't hide his crestfallen expression. "He really can't spare five minutes to drop by?"

Sean jumped in quickly. "He hardly left at all when you were unconscious. We almost had to force feed him."

Charles’ expression teetered between being pleased and concerned. "I see. Will you…will you tell him he's welcome to come visit when he gets the chance?"

Raven gave a placating smile. "Of course. We'll let you rest now, right guys? Need you back on your feet so you can breathe down our necks about not breaking all your fancy stuff."

Charles gave another smile and a short laugh as everyone filed out of the room.

* * *

Raven's smile dropped as soon as she left the infirmary. She stalked through the mansion, the epitome of a woman on a mission. She found Erik in the kitchen, where she had confronted him what seemed like ages ago as he tried to sneak out to find Shaw. Making a beeline to him, she punched him in the shoulder. Erik winced and gave a short cry, more out of surprise than pain.

"Raven!"

"You," she pointed her finger in his face, "need to go see my brother."

Erik's face immediately became unreadable. "I'm busy. There's too much to be done here-"

He was interrupted by another punch, much harder than the last. The girl had been lifting weights it seemed.

"The next one is in the face. You need to go see Charles. He's asking for you and I can only lie to him so much. He's been through a lot-"

"I know that-" He glared at Raven's warning look, but silenced. Despite knowing he could easily best her in a fight, the girl was quite defensive when it came to her older brother, so he let her continue.

"-and he needs someone to talk to. He sees us as his charges. The boys are his students and I'm his sister. You're the only one he sees as an equal. You're also the only one who has had previous experience with Shaw. None of us know what we're doing. We're trying and he's putting on a good show, but…he was kidnapped, tortured, and imprisoned in his own mind. He had to watch through his own eyes while Onslaught tried to kill us more than once then tried to bend the entire world to his whims. He's suffering in silence and you're in here," she paused to take stock of what he'd been doing, "cleaning a dish. So whatever it is that's up your ass, get the hell over it and talk to the man who dove into the ocean without a second thought to save your life."

Without waiting for a reply, she stalked out of the kitchen in the direction of the gym, no doubt to give the punching bag a stern talking to, leaving Erik blinking in the kitchen to think about what she'd said.


	14. Chapter 14

Before he even opened his eyes, Charles felt another presence in the room.

"Erik?" he whispered. A chair made a jerking scrape on the floor as its occupant startled. Charles let out an amused chuckle and opened his eyes to find steely gray returning his gaze. Erik's expression was wary…guarded. When he spoke it was gruff, but with a trace of tentativeness Charles wasn't accustomed to hearing from the man.

"How are you feeling?"

"Much better, thank you. I'm glad you came by. I hear you've been quite busy around the house."

Erik replied with a noncommittal grunt. He looked down, no longer meeting Charles' gaze. "I'm sorry."

Charles' brow furrowed in confusion. "For working around the house?"

"No!" He gave a frustrated huff. "For...for everything that happened...with Onslaught..."

"It wasn't your fault, Erik. You were instrumental in getting Onslaught back under control if I remember correctly."

"But you wouldn't have been captured in the first place if I hadn't been foolish enough to get tricked by Shaw. None of this would have happened."

"Is that why you've been avoiding me?"

Erik remained silent.

"My friend, we cannot live in a world of 'what ifs'," Charles chided. "Those are two very dangerous words. Things would have happened differently if it hadn't happened, yes, but who can say whether it would have turned out better or worse."

"But-"

"I don't blame you. I made the decision to find you that night. I was there of my own volition. You in no way forced me, nor did you willingly hand me over to Shaw. It all turned out in the end. You did quite well leading the children. They spoke very highly of your training and from what I remember of the beach their praise is rightfully given. If anyone should apologize, it should be me. I believe I tried to kill you more than once, then killed the man you'd devoted your life to killing yourself."

Erik scowled at the last bit, clearly displeased, but didn't advance the issue. "It wasn't you."

Charles gave a weak smile. "Still…I'm sorry."

Silence reigned again until Erik could contain his unspoken question no longer.

"What did he do to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," Erik's voice rose before he reigned himself back in. "What did Shaw do to you after he captured you…before Onslaught came?"

Charles tensed, deciding how to answer the question. "He…showed me things."

"What things?" Erik asked a little too quickly.

Charles a fleeting glare crossed the telepath's face. He paused once more in deliberation, seeming conflicted about what to say.

"And don't even think of lying to me," the German added. "I know how Shaw works. If you don't tell me, I'll just draw from my own experiences and make assumptions."

"You know what they say about assuming…"

"Charles." The warning tone silenced the telepath, who then heaved a frustrated sigh.

"Mutants. He showed me mutants. He made me feel their pain...their rejection...their abandonment. He forced me to watch as he tortured them and then showed me the power they attained from it."

Erik closed his eyes in a small wince. "He said he showed you what he did to me."

"He did," Charles confirmed matter-of-factly.

"And that's what broke you?"

"Erik, he'd shown me many things. Onslaught was going to take over. It was just a matter of time. I will admit that seeing your internment was painful. And, yes, it was the last thing he showed me before Onslaught took power. But you are in no way responsible for anything that happened. I don't blame you nor do the children, so please don't blame yourself."

Erik looked like he wanted to press the issue, but stopped as Charles stifled a yawn.

"Will you be okay?" he asked after a slight hesitation.

Charles looked thoughtful. "It will take time, but I believe I will be."

Erik evaluated him with a piercing stare before giving a quick nod of satisfaction.

"I'll let you get some more rest." With that, he got up and headed for the door.

"Erik?"

The German turned back.

"Don't spend too much time cleaning the house. I certainly didn't."

Erik allowed a smile and short laugh. "Get some rest, Charles. I'll be back in a while."

* * *

"Where were you? Those four days you were unconscious...what was happening in your head?"

Charles gave Alex a look of surprise. The boy had come back from wandering the grounds to spend one last night in the infirmary before returning to his own room. Charles didn't think it was a coincidence that it happened to be his last night in the infirmary as well.

"How do you know I was anywhere? Maybe it was all lost time to me."

"No, Hank said something about erratic brain waves. There was something was going on in your head."

The boy was more perceptive than he let on.

"I..." Charles began, choosing his words carefully. "I needed to rebuild my mental barriers against Onslaught. It took time and a great deal of effort. He was most uncooperative."

"I bet," Alex responded with a raised eyebrow. He knew it was the best he would get from the telepath, though the man was speaking with a nonchalance no person could possibly possess after such an ordeal. 

"Well," he continued, "if you ever want to, you know, talk about anything or whatever...I'm pretty laid up for the next month so I could use the stories." He knew Charles would never take him up on the offer, but that was okay. At least the telepath would know his "students" were there for him. As the saying goes, it’s the thought that counts.

Charles gave a half smile. "Thank you, Alex. I'll keep that in mind. Good night."

"Good night."

* * *

The next day, Erik decided to broach another issue with Charles. Alex had left for the morning and Erik stood in the doorway of the medical lab casually leaning against the frame. Charles was sitting up in bed, staring down at his hands, deep in thought.

"You lied to me."

Charles' head shot up, a puzzled look crossing his face. "How so?"

"Back when we were training, you told me I could be the most powerful mutant the world had seen, including you. You knew about Onslaught when you were just a teenager. Therefore, you lied to me. I could never be more powerful than that, no matter how much you train me."

Charles gave a small smile. "Well, I wasn't really lying. I never meant for Onslaught to gain dominance."

"You still knew you had that power at your disposal."

"It doesn't count if I never intended to use it."

"Yes, but-"

"Are you really going to argue philosophy with me, Erik?"

Erik let his mouth quirk into a slight smile. In three purposeful strides, he made his way to the bed and slid into the chair next to it.

"How do you control it? Your pent up desires and urges...Onslaught. You know it's there and that it wants to get out. If you were ever put in the position where your power wasn't enough to protect the ones you cared for, how would you resist releasing it?"

"By remembering that while it may save my loved ones in the short term, in the long term it will destroy us all."

Erik paused, absorbing what Charles said before responding. "You're even stronger than I thought you were, my friend, to be able to resist such power at your disposal."

"It's going to be harder now that it's gotten out once," Charles said with something akin to regret. "He's closer to the surface and I don't think he'll ever be as passive as he was before his taste of freedom. Every day for the rest of my life is going to be a battle not to become what Sebastian Shaw tried to make me."

Erik looked contemplative for a moment. "Why don't you start with today and go from there?"

Charles smiled. Erik may not look it, but he possessed unexpected wisdom. The pair sat in companionable silence before Erik broke in again.

"Are you up for a game of chess?"

"That sounds wonderful."

Erik brightened, as much as the man ever did anything that could be described as brightening. "I'll go get a board then."

With that, he left the room, throwing a smile back at his friend. Charles returned it.

The German made his way up to his room where he knew he had left the chessboard. A glint from under his bed caught his eye. He reached down and pulled out the helmet he'd gone back to the woods for days earlier. Sitting on the bed, he looked at the metal, twirling it in his grasp. He really should give it to Hank or Charles. They could study it. Or get rid of it.

Then again, Riptide had made a valid point on the beach. If Onslaught ever managed to come back, he could easily kill them all. The metal helmet seemed to be the only defense against him. Thus, it would be better to keep it…just in case. It could be his little secret. He would never wear it otherwise. It was more like having a fire extinguisher handy in the kitchen. If a fire started, he could put it out. If not, the extinguisher never had to be used.

Erik was certainly not thinking back to what Onslaught had said on the beach… mutants have thoughts of disrupting peace as much as humans, if not more…or the pointed way the telepath had looked at him as he said it. He most definitely wasn't wondering how much Onslaught, and therefore Charles, knew about the way he thought. Nor was he considering how much of a problem the humans were going to be and how, if Charles wasn't going to do anything about it, he undoubtedly would. No, Erik's real reason for keeping the helmet had absolutely nothing to do with thinking he might need to keep his thoughts to himself someday. Because, no matter how tempted he was, that would be betraying his friend, which surely he wasn't capable of.

After a great deal of contemplation and mental dispute, Erik replaced the helmet securely under the bed.

* * *

As soon as the door to the infirmary closed behind Erik, the smile faded from Charles' face.

"He's going to leave you, you know."

Charles sighed and closed his eyes. Reopening them, he found himself standing on the mansion's grounds with a perfect view of the satellite dish. Before him was Onslaught, fire burning bright behind his eyes. He was tethered to a nearby tree, restrained but mobile.

"You saw exactly the same things as I did in his head," Onslaught continued. "The only reason he didn't join Shaw was because of their past. He believes the same things that man did."

"You don't need to tell me," Charles replied calmly as he approached his doppelganger. "As you said, I saw exactly the same things as you."

A flash of the submarine appeared. Erik was pinned to the wall after the metal he'd pulled down onto Shaw had been used against him. They could hear Erik's voice even though he wasn't speaking aloud.

"I agree with every word you said. We are the future. But unfortunately, you killed my mother."

Onslaught looked at Charles. "He was lying on the beach when he said you could find other ways for peace together. He'll leave all of you behind and become the very man he hunted down and killed."

Charles stared at the satellite dish, his gaze solemn. "He might."

"You helped him become more powerful than he knew he could be. He's going to use that power to fight against you."

"He might."

"If he turns into Shaw, you know the only way you'll be able to defeat him is by letting me out."

"No," Charles replied sharply, whipping his head to face Onslaught. " _I ___will cross that bridge when I come to it. _You ___will remain dormant."

"Please," Onslaught scoffed. "You're going to need me. You know everything I've said is true. Shaw did too good a job instilling his beliefs in Erik. Erik is going to turn into Shaw and when he does someone will have to stop him from killing all the humans. He's already trying to hide things from you. He wasn't just avoiding you because of his guilt about my release. You know he kept that helmet. He won't destroy it."

Charles sighed deeply. "I know."

"Then you know that's his first step to betraying our cause...to betraying you. He was right about one thing though. He may be powerful, but nobody on this earth is more powerful than us. Not yet at least. When he turns, we _will ___have to stop him."

Charles' expression had returned to neutral, if not the slightest bit resigned. "We'll see."

"That we will."

Erik's voice boomed over the landscape. "Charles?"

Charles blinked, finding himself once again surrounded by the walls of the infirmary. Erik was sitting next to him, chessboard positioned between them.

"I didn't mean to wake you."

Charles gave a reassuring smile. "I was just resting my eyes."

"Are you still up for this?" He indicated the chessboard with a nod.

"I think a game of chess is precisely what I need."

Erik watched the telepath set up the board. He couldn't help but notice that the mutant set up the black side for himself, leaving Erik the white. Charles shot him a quick glance. For a moment, Erik would have sworn he saw a flash of orange watching him. It was gone in a split second, if it was ever there in the first place, and Charles' blue eyes shone before him once more. A pawn on the board was shifted.

"Your move."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you have it. Like I said in the story summary, this is the first story of a series. The first sequel is finished, the second is about halfway done (both published on ff.net and to be published here), and the third is stewing in my brain. They bring the three X-Men movies (from 2000, 2003, and 2006) back to occur in the years following First Class, plus adapt the Onslaught comic arc to a degree. Obviously I take liberties, but there's a lot more from the comics that I reference in the stories to come. I hope people will check them out because I love writing them. Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> This is published in full over on ff.net. Updates will come as I proofread those chapters. I'm simultaneously writing the 2nd sequel, so I don't know how long it'll be, but I try not to leave people hanging too long.
> 
> And, for those who are wondering, the story title comes from a quote by Robert Herrick, "A spark neglected makes a mighty fire."


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